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Matthew Vella
Infringement procedures against Malta over the transposition of European hunting laws, will feature on the agenda for an April meeting between government and the European Commission.
Discussions are expected to focus over possible infringement procedures with respect to Malta’s transposition of the Birds Directive.
Bird protection organisations in Belgium told MaltaToday they were expecting a negative verdict from the Commission over Malta’s report for the derogation from spring hunting for 2004.
In its latest brief to the European Commission, BirdLife International stressed that Malta had not yet transposed Article 9 of the Birds Directive, which allows a member state to derogate from the ban on spring hunting.
BirdLife called upon the Commission to take legal action against Malta. Konstantin Kreiser, BirdLife’s policy officer in Brussels, said a country could not apply for a derogation without first transposing it into its national legislation.
Malta still allows turtle dove and quail to be hunted in spring, which is forbidden by the Birds Directive.
BirdLife also told the Commission that Maltese law allows 12 species of water birds to be hunted at sea until the end of February, leading to “an impermissible” overlap with spring migration.
Malta is expected to amend its hunting laws to have the trapping season, which at present runs from 1 October to 10 April, close on 31 January. Hunting at sea, which usually runs to the last day of February, will also have to stop by 31 January.
But draft regulations published in September 2005 to amend the hunting and trapping seasons were still being discussed a week before the trapping season would have been closed, had EU law been transposed.
BirdLife International is urging the Commission to reject any attempt made by Malta to use derogations under Article 9 of the Birds Directive, and to treat spring hunting as an infringement.
“According to the conditions of Article 9, spring hunting cannot be allowed through such a derogation as this only possible if there are no alternatives. In this case, hunting in the autumn is clearly an alternative solution. A detailed report from BirdLife submitted to the Commission in January 2006 shows that this and other conditions of Article 9 are not met,” BirdLife said.
The organisation also said Malta was ignoring community law and enforcing inadequately its own hunting laws. BirdLife it was clear that the European Commission must now take legal action.
Malta still allows hunting in spring. The government claims it clinched an agreement with the EU during its accession negotiations to apply the derogation from the ban on spring hunting.
But the commissioner for the environment, Stavros Dimas, has told the European Parliament that Spring hunting in Malta for turtle dove and quail was never negotiated between the Maltese government and the EU.
Dimas said the September 2002 agreement allowing Malta to apply for a derogation from the Birds Directive, “does not contradict what the Commission replied on 31 August 2005 … that the possible hunting in spring in Malta for Turtle Doves and Quails has not been negotiated between the Government and EU.”
The 2002 agreement specified that Malta would be allowed to apply for a derogation, although this would have to be justified in a report providing data supporting Malta’s claim that the two bird species are only present in significant numbers during their Spring migration, and this was the only opportunity to hunt those species.
During the same negotiations, the EU had pointed out that certain species could only be hunted because of their high population level, geographical distribution and reproductive rate in the community as a whole, “to the extent that the limits set by the Directive are respected and the population of these species is maintained at satisfactory level.”
Malta presented its report justifying its derogation back in November in a meeting between Dimas and Environment Minister George Pullicino, in which the Commissioner “made it clear” that Malta had to get its legislation on Spring hunting in line with EU law.
mvella@mediatoday.com.mt
Links: www.maltatoday.com.mt/2006/01/22/t17.html
www.maltatoday.com.mt/2005/11/27/t8.html
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