Wolf hunting could return to western Europe under EU plan

The commission’s proposal to downgrade the wolf’s protection follows increasingly intensive lobbying by farming groups. Photograph: Raimund Linke/Getty Images

Wolves could be hunted again across western Europe after the European Commission proposed to reduce their protection, in what lawyers said was an ominous move against effective environmental laws.

The commission has proposed that EU member states downgrade the wolf’s status under the Berne convention from “strictly protected” to “protected” after two decades in which the species has returned to many countries from which it has been extinct for decades, including Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and Denmark.