Commissione Europea

The European Commission has proposed changing the protection status of the wolf from "strictly protected" to only "protected".The loss of the adverb it would thus open the door to hunting, albeit with the limitations imposed by the Member States as they are still "obliged to ensure that a favorable conservation status is achieved and maintained for the populations in their biogeographical regions".According to the Commission, there are over 20,000 individuals present in European territory, a number that represents "a victory for the conservation of the species" but also "a risk for livestock and rural communities".However, the proposal did not convince animal rights associations such as the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), which writes about lack of scientific evidence in this regard and accused Ursula von der Leyen of “sacrificing conservation successes for her own political gain”.President who was directly affected by the...

Migrants beaten by masked Croatian police officers and forced to return across the border into Bosnia.It is the picture that emerges from the testimonies and videos reported in a published article last November 18th from Der Spiegel which reconstructs the attempt of several people fleeing their countries to cross the border between Bosnia and Croatia to reach Western Europe. For years, asylum-seekers have been claiming abuse at the hands of Croatian border police, with some reporting beatings and electric shocks.For the first time, videos in combination with reporting by DER SPIEGEL have confirmed some of these reports. https://t.co/JyiWoX9s8i — SPIEGEL English (@SPIEGEL_English) November 18, 2020 Der Spiegel tells what happened to "Ibrahim", a young Pakistani man who left Kashmir two years ago, based on his words and independent verifications:on a cold day at the end of March, along with other migrants, he was forced by alleged Croatian police men wearing a...

The Committee of Permanent Representatives of the European Union (COREPER) approved yesterday in Brussels a proposal from the European Commission to reduce the level of protection for wolves.The objective is in fact to downgrading the wolf species from “particularly protected” to only “protected”, an indispensable element to facilitate - through the introduction of hunting quotas - the culling of specimens when they are considered too numerous.The turning point came following the decision of the German executive, which had previously opted for abstention, to vote in favour.Among the entities that supported the measure, there is also the Italian government.To be finally approved, the proposal will have to get the green light from the Convention for the Conservation of Wild Life and its Habitats in Europe, also known as the Bern Convention. During the vote, there were a total of 21 votes in favour.According to diplomatic sources, only Spain and Ireland voted again...

Over 260 thousand citizens of the European Union have signed a petition addressed to the European Commission, expressly asking the EU executive to give political priority to reducing the use of pesticides.The petition, the result of a growing movement in favor of environmental sustainability, was supported by numerous environmental organizations and associations active in the sector of environmental protection and agriculture, but also by many public health experts and biologists.There are three fundamental objectives at the center of the instance:reintroducing pesticide reduction into EU policy, reinstating ambitious targets for sustainable food production systems and protecting public health and the environment.The fight against the massive use of pesticides is therefore reinvigorated, an increasingly crucial aspect for the protection of the ecosystem and public health, put at risk by an intensive agricultural model considered, on a large scale, no longer sustainable in the long term...