The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has ruled that the law in Castilla y León allowing the hunting of Iberian wolves is in violation of European law.

The court stated that a species cannot be declared as "hunted" in any region of a member state if its conservation status is unfavorable at the national level.

This decision follows a challenge by the Association for the Conservation and Study of the Iberian Wolf (ASCEL) against a regional law that permitted the hunting of 339 wolves from 2019 to 2022. The CJEU emphasized that any hunting regulations must be based on accurate conservation data, which the regional government failed to consider.

The ruling reinforces that measures for managing a species should aim to improve its conservation status, not to expand hunting opportunities.