EU top court rules against Austria wolf hunting

The European Union's top court ruled Thursday that Austria had no right to hunt wolves, after activists contested killings of the protected species in the Alpine nation.

Published: 11 July 2024 16:58 CEST

EU top court rules against Austria wolf hunting

A pack of wolves. Photo by Thomas Bonometti on Unsplash

Several regions of Austria started to allow wolves to be killed last year after reporting that the animals were increasingly attacking livestock.

Environmental groups brought a case to court in Austria’s Tyrol province, arguing that hunting wolves violated an EU directive adopted in 1992 protecting the animals.

The Tyrol court asked the European Court of Justice (ECJ) for guidance.

“A derogation from that (wolf hunting) prohibition to prevent economic damage is only to be granted if the wolf population is at a favourable conservation status, which is not the case in Austria,” the ECJ said in its ruling.

“The Austrian government has itself admitted that the wolf population in Austria is not at a favourable conservation status.”

Twenty wolves have been killed in Austria since last year, according to the country’s Bear-Wolf-Lynx Centre.

NGOs estimated there were around 80 individual wolves in the country in 2022, marking a gradual return of an animal that disappeared in the 19th century.

Regional Austrian governments have appealed for the wolves’ protection status to be reduced, saying it is no longer threatened.

Following the ruling, the Tyrol government said the regulations it had passed to allow wolves to be shot had “proved their worth” and vowed to continue allowing the animals to be killed.

Tyrol said decisions to kill the animals were made on a “case-by-case basis” and took into account “the special features of our alpine farming”.

In its response to the ruling, Austria’s branch of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) urged politicians to “move away from their populist false solutions”.

Austria’s provinces have also failed to “utilise EU funds to promote livestock protection measures or train shepherds” unlike other countries, the NGO said in a press release.

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It follows an earlier study in May, also by the European Pesticide Action Network (PAN Europe) and its members, that found “alarming” levels of PFAS chemicals in Europe’s rivers, lakes and groundwater.

Widely used in everyday items like cosmetics, non-stick pans and fire extinguishers, PFAS long-life substances are highly durable products that can take centuries to break down.

Samples for this latest study, taken from bottled and tap water in 11 EU countries, detected the presence of TFA (trifluoroacetic acid).

A major source of TFA is degrading PFAS used in certain synthetic pesticides and cooling gases in refrigeration and air conditioning, among other applications.

The possible impact on human health of PFAS, and of TFA in particular, has been growing, but “surprisingly few toxicological studies are available”, PAN Europe said.

The samples tested by the Water Technology Centre in Karlsruhe, Germany, found TFA in 34 of 36 tap water samples and in 12 of the 19 bottled mineral and spring waters.

TFA values in tap water ranged from “undetectable” to 4,100 nanograms/litre, with an average of 740 ng/L.

In mineral and spring waters, TFA values ranged from “undetectable” to 3,200 ng/L, with an average of 278 ng/L.

PAN Europe backed the proposal made by the Dutch National Institute of Public Health and the Environment to set a standard at 2,200 ng/L.

This “was set in such a way that the consumption of drinking water only fulfils 20 percent of the tolerable daily intake,” PAN Europe said.

This threshold was exceeded in mineral water analysed in drinking water from Austria (4,100 ng/L), while in Paris, the tap water analysed contained 2,100 ng/L.

Under European Union rules, from 2026 all drinking water must not exceed 500 ng/L for all PFAS, and NGOs are demanding that TFA be added to the list.

An earlier decision to class TFA as “non-relevant” under EU pesticide regulations was “regrettable” considering its “toxicological profile still leaves many questions unanswered”, the report in May said.

A recent study on rabbits and TFA exposure found birth defects in offspring, raising serious concerns about this chemical.

PAN Europe has called for urgent interventions to address this “political failure”, starting with a “rapid ban” on PFAS pesticides and a rethink on the threat posed by individual chemicals like TFA.