European agriculture ministers have largely backed the request
Bucharest and Bratislava are spearheading a push to ease the protected status of brown bears, whose proliferation they say presents a growing danger to citizens and has led to a number of fatal attacks. They argue that EU nature laws are contributing to the problem.
The two countries are using a compelling statistic to back up their position: more than half of Europe’s brown bears are found within their territories: 11,500 in Romania and at least 2,500 in Slovakia. They argue that 4,000 and 800 animals, respectively, would represent an “optimum population level from both an ecological and public-safety perspective”.
In a move similar to a recent campaign that saw burgeoning wolf populations once again become the target of hunters’ rifles, Romania and Slovakia – supported by Croatia, Czechia, and Finland – called on the EU to reconsider the ‘strictly protected’ status that brown bears have enjoyed since 1992 under the EU’s Habitats Directive.
Their arguments – supported by Croatia, the Czech Republic and Finland – were set out in a position paper circulated ahead of a summit of agriculture ministers in Luxembourg on 22 June.
