The Governemt of Malta has sais that today the European Commission adopted a decision to submit a Letter of Formal Notice to Malta concerning the alleged failure by Malta to implement the Birds Directive properly and to comply with a ruling by the European Court of Justice in the Case C-76/08, Commission v Malta, on the hunting of birds in spring. The Commission is alleging that new legislation ‘Conservation of Wild Bird (Framework for Allowing a Derogation Opening a Spring Hunting Season for Turtle Dove and Quai) Regulations 2010’ (LN 221 of 2010) does not comply with the Court ruling.

Malta had made it clear prior to the ECJ judgement that it would abide by whatever ruling was given by the Court on this matter. In this respect, the Government of Malta stands by everything it has done to adhere to the Directive and the ECJ ruling, including the adoption of the new legislation that it has put in place. The Framework Regulations do not ‘seek to permit’ or ‘permit’ spring hunting as the Commission claims. Instead, these Framework Regulations provide a general framework for a restrictive opening of a spring hunting season derogation, in accordance with Article 9 of Directive 79/409/EEC and the Court’s ruling; this means that of themselves they do not permit hunting in spring, but only set the parameters for a possible opening of a spring hunting season for Turtle Dove and Quail in future years as appropriate.

In fact, these Framework Regulations served as the basis for applying a derogation opening of the 2010 spring hunting season, which was opened after lengthy discussions with the Commission.

In its press release, the Commission claims that the Framework Regulations are not in compliance with the principle of proportionality as upheld by the Court in its ruling. The Commission also makes reference to a three-week hunting season permitted by these Regulations. In fact, the Regulations specify that “‘the spring hunting season’, shall be a maximum of three weeks in April of the year for which the Minister may decide to open the spring hunting season by means of a notice in the Gazette”. Moreover, these Regulations stipulate that when setting the bag limit for a possible spring hunting season, the Minister shall take “into consideration changes to the conservation status of the two species” (Annex 1 of the Regulations). These provisions therefore reflect the principle of proportionality as established by the Court.

Malta submits that the ‘Conservation of Wild Bird (Framework for Allowing a Derogation Opening a Spring Hunting Season for Turtle Dove and Quai) Regulations 2010’ (LN 221 of 2010) fully respect the conservation objectives and the principle of proportionality required by the Directive and upheld by the ECJ judgement. Malta will continue its dialogue with the Commission to understand any concerns which the Commission might still have.

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