European Commission denies setting numerical target for Finnish wolf population

Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry admits to making "own interpretation"

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The European Commission says that it has not taken a specific stand on how large Finland’s wolf population should be. According to the Commission, the assertion, that the Commission feels that Finland should have 1,000 wolves in the wild, is erroneous. The Commission suspects that the number put forward was probably an interpretation made by Finnish officials.
     
The Commission says that its mission is to monitor compliance with the EU’s environmental legislation. In the Commission’s view, Finland has improperly taken advantage of an exception permitted by the environment directive by systematically granting hunting permits for wolves without sufficient cause. For that reason, the Commission took legal action against Finland in 2005.
      Finland had promised to draw up a plan for protecting wolves, as stipulated in the directive, by the end of 2002. However, it was not until the end of September this year that a draft of such a plan was submitted.
      In a letter sent to Helsingin Sanomat the Commission also notes that Finland is not the only country in the EU to have wolves in the wild.
      "In Southern Europe - in Spain, for instance, wolf populations are considerably stronger than in Finland. They have also recovered in France in recent years, and there is debate there as well over the protection of the animals and the damage that they cause.
     
Sauli Härkönen, an official at the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, admits that the figure of 1,000 wolves came from the ministry’s own interpretations. However, he emphasised that the number was arrived at on the basis of the Commission’s own criteria.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  European Union wants fivefold increase in Finnish wolf population (6.10.2005)
  EU starts legal proceedings against Finland over wolf hunting and snuff sales (28.9.2005)
  Commissioner gets death threat over Finnish wolf hunting controversy (6.5.2005)
  Finnish wolf community is feared - and possibly doomed (9.2.2000)

Helsingin Sanomat