At the end of today’s hearing of the case against Malta at the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in Luxembourg on the “finch trapping scientific research,” BirdLife Malta said that it was announced that the Court has asked for an AG Opinion, which will be issued on the 30th of May.

Following the Opinion by Advocate General Tamara Capeta, the European Court of Justice will then deliver its final judgement.

BirdLife Malta, stated that following a process that has dragged on for more than three years, the Infringement Proceedings initiated by the European Commission (EC) against Malta, on “the smokescreen finch scientific research” derogation seems to be “finally heading towards a conclusion following today’s last hearing at the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in Case C-23/23 European Commission v Republic of Malta.”

These fresh Infringement Proceedings against Malta on finch trapping were initiated in December 2020 with a Letter of Formal Notice sent by the EC. After responses from the Government to justify that it was a ‘research’ project failed, in June 2021 the Commission took its action a step further, issuing a second warning in the form of a Reasoned Opinion, giving the Government a month to remedy the situation or potentially face the prospect of another case at the European Court.

BirdLife Malta highlighted that “after the Government once again ignored the second formal warning, the Commission had no other option but to take the infringement case to the next and final level, referring Malta once again to the ECJ on the 12th of November 2021.

The case was officially filed by the EC on the 20th of January 2023 (when the application was lodged, kicking off the legal proceedings) and officially came to an end with today’s hearing.

BirdLife said that although it is not known yet when the final ECJ judgement could be delivered, in the previous court case initiated by the European Commission against the Maltese Government in regard to the original finch trapping derogation, it had taken nearly a year for the ECJ verdict to be delivered.

Whilst in that case the Advocate General’s Opinion was issued in July 2017, the landmark ECJ judgement that found Malta guilty of infringing the European Birds Directive when it allowed finch trapping to reopen had been delivered in June 2018 said BirdLife Malta.

Photo: Nicholas Barbara

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