This article examines the emergence of the ecosystem approach as a new legal paradigm within European Union law, focusing on its normative and jurisprudential evolution. Tracing the concept’s international origins and its incorporation into the EU legal framework, the analysis highlights how this approach is increasingly being consolidated not only as a guiding principle but also as an operational legal standard, imposing a systemic perspective centered on ecological processes. Particular attention is given to the role of the Court of Justice of the European Union, which in recent years has developed an ecologically oriented interpretation of biodiversity law, positioning itself as a guardian of ecosystemic coherence. The case of wolf management is explored as a litmus test of the tensions between ecological imperatives and anthropocentric interests – tensions that hinder the full realization of the ecosystem approach while underscoring the urgent need for a new legal grammar of coexistence, based on ecological relationships and shared responsibilities.
