“We have lost the battle but won the war.” These were the concluding remarks of Dr. Jan Bouckaert when he addressed the FACE General Assembly last Friday in Brussels at which hunting associations from 36 countries participated. Malta was represented through the Federation for Hunting & Conservation – Malta (FKNK) whose delegates are the FKNK Secretary, Lino Farrugia, and the Federation’s PRO Joe Perici Calascione.

Dr Bouckaert had been appointed by FACE to assist the Malta Attorney General, Dr. Silvio Camilleri and the FKNK lawyer, Dr. Alex Perici Calascione, in the defence of the Case before the European Court of Justice that the European Commission had instituted against Malta regarding spring hunting. Once again the FKNK wishes to thank the Attorney General for his personal involvement and professional approach in all aspects of Malta’s defence.

Dr Bouckaert further stated that he was sure that this victory was not just for Malta but for all other EU Member States. The court has issued a cautious judgement based on an in-depth interpretation to the letter of the Directive that identifies individual and specific circumstances in the application of Art. 9, derogations, rather than a blanket or general outlook.

Dr Gilbert de Turckheim, the FACE President who was re-elected for the next three year term during the Assembly, congratulated the Maltese delegates for their never surrendering determined persistence in transmitting the truth that has led to this milestone judgement. The Maltese delegates thanked FACE not just in this instance, however also for their continuous support in the last 22 years.

Thursday’s judgement amongst other, established that in the particular case of Malta the hunting of the turtle dove and the quail in autumn does not provide the satisfactory solution alternative to the limited hunting of the same species in spring. It also makes it clear that any derogation has to cater for a proportionality measure.

The FKNK welcomes government’s statement where it said that the government is studying the possibility of opening a limited hunting season for the turtle dove and the quail come spring of 2010. The FKNK therefore hopes that it will be involved from day one in the study just as it was involved from inception of the defence Case that led to the truth being accepted by the Court. When FKNK’s expert advice was replaced by the likes of Saviour Balzan in the Malta/EU negotiations crucial stage, and Joe Sultana in the application of derogations and in the drafting of Legal Notice 79 of 2006, which legislation was supposed to bring local legislation in line with the “Birds” EU Directive, government had only obtained negative and damaging end results.

The FKNK encourages BirdLife Malta to respect the Court’s verdict as stated a day prior to the judgement in a joint statement by FACE and BirdLife International. Furthermore, the FKNK sincerely hopes that Birdlife Malta will now revert to the original beliefs that they upheld prior to Malta’s EU membership, as stated in their press conference of October 2003, wherein they aired their hope that local legislation would in fact limit the spring hunting to only two species. FKNK invites BirdLife Malta for the umpteenth time to collaborate in a serious and constructive manner rather than reverting to tactics that are misrepresentative of the truth and at times even completely untrue. This is the only manner by which conservation principles can be upheld in the best interest of the birds and nature.

Finally the FKNK firmly warns all hunters and trappers that, with immediate effect, it will adopt zero tolerance measure with any of its members who might persist with illegal hunting acts. The FKNK will not put up with anything that might again ever jeopardise the traditional Maltese socio-cultural passion of spring hunting.

Lino Farrugia – Secretary – FKNK

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