Update with reaction from Gozo Minister below – BirdLife Malta has said that the European Commission (EC) has just announced that it will be taking Malta to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) again over finch trapping.

In view of today’s legal action announced by the EC, BirdLife Malta is calling on the Government to ”immediately close the ongoing finch trapping season.”

”This time round on the smokescreen ‘research’ trapping season which was opened for the second consecutive year this autumn under the false guise of a – scientific project,” BLM said.

In a statement, BirdLife Malta said that ”the EC has seen through the ploy by the Government to repeal last year’s Framework Law allowing for finch trapping to enact new regulations this year, and was not fooled by this attempt to buy time with the hope that a new Infringement Procedure is initiated from scratch.”

It added that, ”following the first two warnings, today’s legal action was inevitable and now the Government will have to try to defend the indefensible at the ECJ once again.”

BirdLife Malta said that it ”had warned the Government to end this charade, but instead of doing what was obvious, when the infringement process was escalated, the Prime Minister gave in to the trapping lobby and to Minister Clint Camilleri’s demands and continued to challenge the Commission. Now that the European Commission has announced it will be once again taking Malta to the ECJ, the Government only has itself to blame.”It stressed that, ”closing the season with immediate effect in view of today’s decision would bring to a stop the killing of thousands of finches under the excuse of ‘research.”

BirdLife added that, ”finches are protected species across the EU while the European Birds Directive prohibits trapping of birds. Taking this step would also at least save face for Malta’s reputation in scientific research – a reputation which has been tarnished with the Government’s description of its authorisation of over 2,500 trapping sites across private, public and Natura 2000 sites as a ‘research project.”

It went on to say that the Commission in fact has today clearly stated: “Although Malta repealed the incriminated legislation in early October, it did not allay the Commission’s concerns: the trapping licences for the 2021 season had already been issued on the basis of the repealed 2020 framework, and new rules have been swiftly adopted with only minor changes compared to the previous legal regime.

”The Commission therefore considers the reply by the Maltese authorities to both the Letter of Formal Notice and the Reasoned Opinion as unsatisfactory, and is therefore referring Malta to the Court of Justice of the European Union.”

Update – Reaction Gozo Minister

Gozo Minister Clint Camilleri in a post on Facebook said that, ”with reference to the decision of the European Commission to open a case against Malta on the research period 2020, it must be said that the Government is working to be able to put forward its points.”

He added that ”the Government remains committed to dialogue with the same Commission and all parties.”

Linnet in a cage (Photo by Nicholas Barbara) and Illegal trapping site (Photo by BirdLife Malta)

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