BirdLife Malta has described the government’s decision to open the spring hunting season as a farce, and one that remains in breach of EU law risking Malta being shamed at the European Court of Justice (ECJ) again.

A so-called ‘limited’ season will not minimise Malta’s guilt before the ECJ, BirdLife said. The fact that Malta has already been found guilty by the Court on the issue of spring hunting means that if the government breaks the law again by allowing spring hunting, the Commission can take Malta back to court under Article 260 of the Lisbon Treaty and Malta can incur fines.

Turtle Dove and Quail are listed as species of conservation concern in Europe, and according to the Commission’s hunting guide to the Birds Directive derogations should not be applied for these declining species in Europe. This alone can be enough for the Commission to take the same swift action against Malta as it took against Cyprus in 2007.

Cyprus had allowed only two days of Turtle Dove shooting in early May 2007 under a ‘crop damage’ derogation, for the first time in 14 years. But the Commission issued a swift warning, through a letter of formal notice the following month. Cyprus then promised not to permit the spring hunting of Turtle Dove.

“In our case however, in spite of losing the case at the European Court of Justice our government still presses on with this issue to appease the hunting lobby, at the expense of the Maltese taxpayer,” said BirdLife Malta President Joseph Mangion.

“It is of great concern that the government’s statement of yesterday reveals the intention to increase bag limits and extend the hunting season in future. Such statements only serve to raise false expectations among the hunting community and ensure the saga of spring hunting in Malta is needlessly perpetuated” Mangion continued.

BirdLife Malta also questioned how the government could strictly supervise a daily quota of two birds and a maximum seasonal limit of three birds for every license, as well as the national limit. The conservation organisation drew attention to the impossibility of controlling such limits since migration locally occurs in short bursts with large numbers of birds passing through, when hunters can shoot many birds in short span of time.

The government goes as far as suggesting that the hunting season would close as soon as the limit of birds that can be taken is reached. Its comical plan to achieve this relies on each hunter sending a text message every time a bird is killed and ‘spot checks’ by the ALE. This only means that the ALE will be stretched further between checking hunters’ daily bags and catching poachers targeting protected species.

BirdLife also drew attention to the fact that the government’s derogation statement includes technical mistakes – not only are the calculations on the number of birds that can be hunted wrong, but the government also seems to be unaware that Malta being on one of three migration routes for birds does not amount to a third of the population of Turtle Dove and Quail migrating over Malta.

“Yesterday’s decision and the manner in which the Government is trying to justify it, is simply pathetic. Since it is now confirmed that the Maltese government is incapable of the taking a strong decision to stop spring hunting, we have no choice but to wait for the Commission’s action to put an end to this saga.” Mangion concluded.

Photograph aboves shows BirdLife Malta delivering over 120,000 signatures from Europe and beyond to the Prime Minister. The petition demanded that the Prime Minister takes action against illegal hunting and never allows spring hunting again. Photo by Chris Cachia Zammit.

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