BirdLife has said today that Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi’s outrageous statement on a TV programme last Monday that he was committed to opening a three-week spring hunting season next year is a complete contradiction of his previous stand justifying a six-day season this year.
In a letter to European Environment Commissioner Janez Potocnik today, BirdLife Malta drew attention to the fact that the Prime Minister’s unilateral decision announcing a three-week season in 2011 is in clear defiance of the Commission’s warning that this would land the country back at the European Court of Justice.
The Commission has already made it clear that if a three-week spring hunting season is opened, “the possibility of launching legal action under Article 260 of the Treaty of the Functioning of the European Union cannot be excluded.”
In spite of this, the Honourable Prime Minister last Monday revealed the government’s intention to open a three-week season next year with a bag limit of 25,000 birds. He therefore lifted the restrictions put on the season this spring, which were boycotted by the hunting lobby, completely surrendering to their demands.
“If Dr Gonzi thinks that a three-week spring hunting season is possible, then why did he open the season for only six days this year? The only thing that changed since the Commission’s warning last April and the TV programme last Monday is that the Prime Minister has once again given into pressure from an aggressive hunting lobby,” said Joseph Mangion, BirdLife Malta President.
BirdLife said the Prime Minister has taken the country back to square one, with promises that cannot be fulfilled without risking the country’s interests.
“Our Prime Minister is not trying to solve the spring hunting problem or protect the country’s interest but is fanning the flames of controversy. This is a Prime Minister who brands the environment as a priority and then just days from 5th June -World Environment Day – announces his decision to allow hunters to kill thousands of migratory birds in defiance of EU’s nature conservation laws,” added Mr Mangion.
The European Commission’s 2008 publication ‘Guide to Sustainable Hunting under the Birds Directive’ states that derogations should not be granted for species or populations with an unfavourable conservation status within the European Union. The most recent European Management Plans for the Common Quail and Turtle Dove stress that both species have an unfavourable conservation status in Europe.
“These political games may yield positive results for the Maltese government, but what is at stake here is the proper implementation of the Birds Directive throughout the European Union,” Mr Mangion told Environment Commissioner Potocnik.
BirdLife Malta said it has submitted three reports to the Commission documenting the extent of illegal hunting this spring – within the six-day derogation period and in the weeks before. The data clearly shows that weak law enforcement fails to control the hunting illegalities, including the targeting of protected species that migrate over Malta to their European breeding grounds.