“The Malta Ornis Committee Chairman, Louis Cilia, has refused to circulate the official recommendations he made to the Ministry for this year’s spring hunting derogation,” BirdLife Malta said today.

BLM said that the, “The Ornis Committee is bound by law to make recommendations to the Minister for the Environment on matters related to hunting, which must be subject to input from Ornis committee members, who then vote on the final recommendations to be submitted to government.”

Last March, BirdLife Malta said it requested the resignation of the Ornis Chairman after he unilaterally drafted recommendations not only for the opening of a spring hunting season but also a trapping season and gave only two days to Ornis members to review and make comments on the proposal.

“The Chairman has since refused to share with the rest of the Committee the final recommendations he made to the Minister, despite filing his proposal on behalf of the Committee,” Birldfie said.

BirdLife continued by saying that it has “twice requested a copy of the final recommendations to compare it with the Ministry’s decision. In his message to BirdLife Malta the Ornis secretary informed BirdLife to refer to the minutes of the Ornis meeting, adding that the final recommendation would not be circulated by email ‘due to leaks of documents on previous occasions.’ Asked whether the recommendation would be circulated by other means, BirdLife Malta was informed that the Ornis secretary had received directions not to circulate the recommendation.”

“By censoring his recommendations to the Minister, the chairman further confirms his authoritarian stance with pushing forward the government’s agenda on spring hunting. It is about time that he leaves his post to someone who believes in a democratic and transparent process and who has at least a basic understanding of the Birds Directive and conservation science,” stated BirdLife Malta.

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