ABSTRACT
As is widely known, there is an ongoing infringement proceeding in the European Commission concerning Swedish wolf-hunting policy, initiated in early 2010 by four environmental NGOs. They claimed that Swedish ‘licence hunting’ breached obligations under the EU’s Habitats Directive. Following certain exchanges in 2010, the European Commission sent a formal notice to the Government in January 2011 and the reasoned opinion came in June. When the Government answered two months later, it – according to its own words – announced a temporary change of policy in order to circumvent the legal action from Brussels. However, the wolves’ reprieve was short-lived. In 2012, the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) released a management plan that included the use of management hunting. The Commission again strongly criticized this plan and threatened enforcement action. The Government replied in January of 2013 with a defence of the plan. A few days later, the 2013 hunt was decided by the SEPA.
