What changed between the resolution motion and the adopted text

The European Parliament,

– having regard to the report of 4 May 2019 by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) entitled ‘Global assessment report on biodiversity and ecosystem services’,

– having regard to the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species,

– having regard to the precautionary principle, as enshrined in Article 191(2) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,

– having regard to the report published in 2024 by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations entitled ‘The State of the World’s Forests – Forest-sector innovations towards a more sustainable future’,

– having regard to the forthcoming 20th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), to be held from 24 November to 5 December 2025 in Uzbekistan,

– having regard to UN General Assembly resolutions on illicit trafficking of wildlife, most recently Resolution 77/325, adopted on 25 August 2023,

– having regard to the report of May 2024 by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime entitled ‘World Wildlife Crime Report – Trafficking in Protected Species’,

– having regard to the 2025 publication of Europol entitled ‘The changing DNA of serious and organised crime – European Union Serious and Organise Crime Threat Assessment’ (EU-SOCTA report),

– having regard to CITES Resolution Conf. 12.3 (Rev. CoP19) entitled ‘Permits and certificates’,

– having regard to CITES Decision 19.66 entitled ‘Review of Resolution Conf. 11.3 (Rev. CoP19) on Compliance and enforcement’,

– having regard to CITES Resolution Conf. 17.6 (Rev. CoP19) entitled ‘Prohibiting, preventing, detecting and countering corruption, which facilitates activities conducted in violation of the Convention’,

– having regard to CITES Decisions 19.81 to 19.83 entitled ‘Wildlife crime linked to the Internet’,

– having regard to CITES Resolution Conf. 12.10 (Rev.CoP15) entitled ‘Registration of operations that breed Appendix-I animal species in captivity for commercial purposes’,

– having regard to CITES Decision 14.69 entitled ‘Captive-bred and ranched specimens’,

– having regard to CITES Resolutions Conf. 12.5 (Rev. CoP19) entitled ‘Conservation of and trade in tigers and other Appendix-I Asian big cat species’ and Conf. 9.14 (Rev. CoP17) entitled ‘Conservation of and trade in African and Asian rhinoceroses’,

– having regard to CITES Resolution Conf. 10.10 (Rev. CoP19) entitled ‘Trade in elephant specimens’,

– having regard to CITES Decisions 18.226 (Rev. CoP19), 19.107 and 19.108 entitled ‘Trade in Asian elephants (Elephas maximus)’,

– having regard to CITES Decisions 19.275 to 19.277 entitled ‘Taxonomy and nomenclature of African elephants (Loxodonta spp.)’, 18.117 (Rev. CoP19), 18.118 and 18.119 (Rev. CoP19) entitled ‘Closure of domestic ivory markets’, and 19.156, 19.157, 18.184 (Rev. CoP19), 18.185 (Rev. CoP19), entitled ‘Stocks and stockpiles (elephant ivory)’,

– having regard to CITES Decisions 19.68 to 19.70 entitled ‘Review of the National Ivory Action Plan Process’,

– having regard to the CITES Resolution Conf. 17.9 entitled ‘Trade in hunting trophies of species listed in Appendix I or II’,

– having regard to CITES Decisions 19.218 to 19.221 entitled ‘Eels (Anguilla spp.)’,

– having regard to IUCN Resolution 132 entitled ‘Controlling and monitoring trade in croaker swim bladders to protect target croakers and reduce incidental catches of threatened marine megafauna’, adopted at the 2021 IUCN World Conservation Congress,

– having regard to the report of the Scientific Committee (SC69B) of the International Whaling Commission, adopted on 3 May 2024,

– having regard to CITES Decisions 19.169 to 19.174 entitled ‘Disposal of confiscated specimens’ and CITES Resolution Conf. 17.8 (Rev. CoP19) entitled ‘Disposal of illegally traded and confiscated specimens of CITES-listed species’,

– having regard to the Commission communication of 9 November 2022 entitled ‘Revision of the EU action plan against wildlife trafficking’ (COM(2022)0581),

– having regard to Directive (EU) 2024/1203 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 April 2024 on the protection of the environment through criminal law and replacing Directives 2008/99/EC and 2009/123/EC (revised Environmental Crime Directive),

– having regard to Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 October 2022 on a Single Market For Digital Services and amending Directive 2000/31/EC (Digital Services Act),

– having regard to its resolution of 9 June 2021 on the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030: Bringing nature back into our lives,

– having regard to its resolution of 5 October 2022 on the EU strategic objectives for the19th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), held in Panama from 14 to 25 November 2022,

– having regard to Council Directive 92/43/EEC of 21 May 1992 on the conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora, which aims to promote the maintenance of biodiversity and which forms the cornerstone of Europe’s nature conservation policy, and Directive 2009/147/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 30 November 2009 on the conservation of wild birds,

– having regard to Regulation (EU) 2016/429 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 9 March 2016 on transmissible animal diseases and amending and repealing certain acts in the area of animal health (‘Animal Health Law’),

– having regard to the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), adopted under the UN Convention on Biological Diversity and, in particular, to Target 4: Halt Species Extinction, Protect Genetic Diversity, and Manage Human-Wildlife Conflicts and to Target 5: Ensure Sustainable, Safe and Legal Harvesting and Trade of Wild Species,

– having regard to the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and in particular, to Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 14 on conservation of seas and marine resources and SDG 15 on protection, restoration and sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems,

– having regard to Rules 142(5) and 136(2) of its Rules of Procedure,

A. whereas CITES is the largest global wildlife conservation agreement, with Turkmenistan having recently become the 185th Party to CITES;

B. whereas Appendix I of CITES lists species threatened with extinction that are or may be affected by trade; whereas Appendix II lists species that may become threatened with extinction unless trade in specimens of such species is subject to strict regulation to avoid utilisation incompatible with their survival and unless trade in these species is brought under effective control;

C. whereas the vast majority of species subject to trade are not protected by CITES; whereas international trade in such species remains unregulated and undocumented;

D. whereas it is important to protect terrestrial, freshwater, marine and coastal biodiversity and tackle the threats posed to it by the unregulated, poorly regulated and illegal use of living terrestrial, marine and other aquatic resources;

E. whereas, according to the IPBES global assessment report on biodiversity and ecosystem services, it is necessary to halt and reverse current trends in biodiversity loss; whereas the report recognises that direct exploitation has been identified as one of the major drivers of the global biodiversity decline; whereas the loss of biodiversity compounds the effects of climate change, increasing vulnerability to extreme weather events and drought and making healthy food and clean water less readily available;

F. whereas the global IUCN Red List assessment for several shark species listed in Appendix II of CITES continues to show a marked decline in the global population in the wild of greater than 80 %, and indicates that species such as the oceanic whitetip shark are still declining, thereby exceeding the Appendix I listing criteria; whereas several endangered shark species remain heavily exploited, which highlights the need to improve enforcement and/or list such species in Appendix I;

G. whereas one third of sharks, rays and chimaeras are threatened with extinction, and one of the primary drivers of these declines is the international trade in their parts and related products; whereas increased restrictions are urgently needed as the potential for most sharks to recover from such declines is limited due to their slow development and reproduction;

H. whereas the critically endangered European eel (Anguilla anguilla) is currently the only eel listed in CITES Appendix II; whereas in a recent case, European glass eels were declared as African longfin eels to which controls on international trade do not apply; whereas the CITES ‘look-alike’ principle provides that taxa that look similar are listed within the same CITES Appendix if one or more of the taxa are threatened through international trade; whereas the inclusion of all the Anguilla species in Appendix II would be justified on conservation and enforcement grounds;

I. whereas the International Whaling Commission, at its 69th meeting in 2024, expressed serious concern about the escalating by-catch mortality linked to the growing international trade in swim bladders from fish such as totoaba; whereas vaquita face the threat of extinction and are now critically endangered due to entanglement in gill nets set to catch the totoaba, itself a critically endangered species; whereas the situation of totoaba and vaquita has already been described as ‘dual extinction’;

J. whereas source code R has been increasingly used for export permits for taxa included in CITES Appendix II without an assessment of the suitability of its application; whereas marine and aquatic species are among the taxa for which source code R may have been used inappropriately, among them some sturgeon species and European eels;

L. whereas CITES Decision 14.69 on captive-bred and ranched specimens opposes the commercial breeding and trade in tigers for their parts; whereas EU Member States continue to import and export live tigers and tiger parts registered under the CITES code of commercial trade;

M. whereas the peregrine falcon is a valuable species, in high demand for international trade with various media reports documenting illegal offtake, including in European countries, and illegal trade in this species;

N. whereas illegal wildlife trade is driven by a growing demand for products derived from wildlife and for domestic animals; whereas there is an urgent need to address the root causes of overexploitation by reducing the use of natural resources, as well as by changing consumption patterns and reducing global demand for wild species;

O. whereas the EU is a major hub, transit point and destination for legally and illegally sourced specimens of wild fauna and flora, with European glass eel trafficking being one of the most devastating crimes against wildlife worldwide and one of the most lucrative;

P. whereas wildlife trafficking is rising sharply and is the fourth largest organised crime in the world; whereas wildlife trafficking offences are often not prioritised by governments or enforcement authorities and perpetrators are rarely prosecuted; whereas wildlife crime has been seen to be building on existing criminal structures, money-laundering, corruption and drug trafficking; whereas case studies show that wildlife traffickers may move between different wildlife commodities and source countries depending on the level of enforcement and market pressure; whereas international cooperation is essential in combating wildlife crime;

Q. whereas the latest EU-SOCTA report on serious and organised crime highlights that wildlife crime remains a persistent threat, with trafficking activities sustained by continuous demand and supply in both EU and non-EU consumer markets, and traffickers increasingly resorting to trading non-CITES-listed species to avoid detection by law enforcement authorities;