BirdLife Malta has said that it will not be attending today’s Ornis Committee meeting “as the government’s tactics have shown that the Ornis Committee is nothing more than a government created smokescreen for the politicised hunting issue.”

Birdlife said the decision follows the government adopting amendments to Malta’s spring hunting framework legislation twice in a matter of weeks, without Ornis Committee members even being aware that the legislation was drafted.

“BirdLife Malta refuses to be part of today’s powerless meeting which will be doing nothing more than rubber stamping what the government has already decided.” said Joseph Mangion, BirdLife Malta President and Ornis Committee member.

Yesterday’s amendments come after the Commission last October renewed legal action against Malta for adopting spring hunting framework legislation, Birdlife said.

Birdlife went on to say that ,”While the government addressed some of the issues raised by the Commission, the amendments at the same time further relax the previous legislation, by removing the limit of 2,500 hunting licenses.”

Furthermore Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi speaking at the parliament yesterday stated that “Malta reached an exceptional agreement with the European Commission and that this is the first time that EC will be agreeing to a method through which a spring hunting derogation will be allowed.”

This statement contradicts the government’s previous statements, made when the Commission decided to take Malta to ECJ, that they had agreed to spring hunting during the Accession Treaty Agreement, Birdlife said.

“The Prime Minister now states that this is the first time an agreement has been reached on the spring hunting issue. Yet, we have reason to believe that this is once again a misleading statement as the European Commission does not make agreements with member states on derogations – the onus of the responsibility for applying a derogation and then justifying it rests with the government.” Mangion continued.

BirdLife Malta insisted that what has been agreed on is only the changes the European Commission requested from Malta in its framework legislation and this could in no way be interpreted as an open cheque for Malta to open a spring hunting season as implied by the prime minister.

BirdLife said that it would like to reming the Maltese public “that during the ECJ case the government had suggested that 15,000 hunters and trappers in Malta and Gozo could hunt only around 5,000 Quails and 4,000 Turtle Doves during the whole autumn hunting season. And this is despite the admissions of the hunting lobby that the actual number of birds shot and trapped are many times higher than what the hunters report in their carnet de chasse, as well as the fact that MEPA was aware of this serious under reporting.”

Birdlife went on to say that the fgovernment “is setting up a small spring hunting bag limit (5,000 Quail, 11,000 Turtle Dove) with the hope of not prompting another court case, while giving the hunting lobby another spring hunting season.”

“No one should pay any attention to the statements of ‘dissatisfaction’ by the hunting lobby as they, like everyone else, know that once the season is open it is impossible to monitor how many birds they will be killing.” Mangion said.

“The hunting lobby’s main issue was with the limit put on the number of hunting licenses (2,500) last year. Now that the prime minister lifted that limit, they know it is free for all. All the fuss that the hunting lobby has made over these years could not have been for one bird per hunter.” Mangion concluded.

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