Jacques Blanc (FR/EVP), Bürgermeister von La Canourgue und Berichterstatter des Europäischen Ausschusses der Regionen zum Pastoralismus, forderte in einer Anhörung, die am 5. Dezember vom Europäischen Parlament in Brüssel zum Thema Wolf organisiert wurde, mehr Mittel und mehr Flexibilität für die Mitgliedstaaten, um ihre Großraubtierbestände zu steuern.

At its October plenary session, the European Committee of the Regions has unanimously adopted an opinion on pastoralism, at the initiative of Jacques Blanc (FR/EPP), mayor of La Canourgue. Maintaining pastoralism is vital for farming across the EU in order to keep rural areas alive, as well as for meeting our environmental and climate-related objectives, argue local government leaders. Keeping grazing going is also conducive to developing tourism in rural areas and helps to safeguard against fires and avalanches. The common agricultural policy (CAP), as well as environmental and social policy, must therefore take greater account of pastoralism.

Although overproduction of milk is forecast for this spring, Karl-Heinz Lambertz (BE/PES), president of the European Committee of the Regions (CoR), believes that the decision by the Council of Ministers on 29 January to temporarily suspend automatic buying-in of skimmed milk powder, without any parallel measures to reduce production, risks triggering another crisis in the dairy sector.