Roughly translated by TWIN Observer
GOTHENBURG / TT
Now wolf hunting can start in Värmland and Örebro after the legal process came to the decision of the Administrative Appeals Court which gave the green light to hunt.
“Many will go out and start chasing tomorrow (Friday). Should snow come in the night it makes it easier to track,” says Gunnar Gløersen, carnivore manager at the Swedish Association for Hunting and Game Management Consultant in Värmland.
He thinks it is good that the judgment states that it is compatible with EU law principles to allow the provincial government to make a decision and then just go to appeal to an authority, in this case, the Environmental Protection Agency.
“The door is closed for smaller organizations and groups to pursue issues to court endlessly,” he says.
Hoping for the EU
But the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) hopes that the EU will act.
“We would like to take hold of this and arranges it up, legally. We want order, then you can have wolf hunting. But the laws that are to be followed, not bypassed,” says WWF’s predator expert Tom Arnbom.
The court has not acted much about wolf cases.
“It is a strictly legal matter. We have not been inside and tried wolf hunting as such,” says Lennart Berglund who is the Administrative Appeals Court counsel in Gothenburg.
It started in the counties of Värmland, Örebro and Dalarna County, where the green light for license hunting for a total of 44 wolves had been given.
The decision was appealed to the Environmental Protection Agency, which stopped the hunt in Dalarna, but gave the go-ahead in the other two counties.
An association turned to the administrative court in Karlstad and questioned on the prohibition of appeal contained in the Swedish hunting regulation was compatible with EU law.
The decision was appealed
The Administrative Court granted a stop for the hunting of the 24 wolves in Värmland and 12 in Örebro.
That decision was appealed in turn by, among others, the Hunters Association.
With Thursday’s judgment, the Appeal held that a decision of the provincial government, which had appealed to the Environmental Protection Agency, in turn, should not go to appeal.
The judgment of the Appeal can be appealed to the Supreme Administrative Court.