Update 3 | Government to defend trapping as Brussels takes court action

The European Commission has officially referred Malta to the EU Court of Justice over its refusal to stop finch trapping, a practice that the Labour government introduced after it was phased out and finally banned in 2009.

Although trapping is banned across the EU, member states may derogate “if there is no satisfactory solution, and if the derogation is used judiciously, with small numbers and strict supervision”.

MaltaToday had revealed two weeks ago that the Commission was “unconvinced” that these conditions were met in Malta’s case.

Malta was allowed a transitional arrangement in the EU Accession Treaty to phase out finch trapping, taking into account the time required to establish a captive breeding programme. The transitional arrangement expired in 2008, and after that trapping was banned.

But Labour’s re-election campaign targeted hunters’ votes, and although Joseph Muscat made no electoral pledge to reopen bird trapping, the reintroduction of trapping as a sop to the hunting lobby opened up an old environmental wound.

Malta was first informed that its trapping season, which allows the trapping of seven species of wild finches, was breaching EU rules in October 2014, in a letter of formal notice.

In May 2015, the EC, therefore sent a reasoned opinion, urging Malta to end the practice, an opinion that the Maltese government has since contested.

BirdLife Malta has welcomed the EC’s decision and has called on them to apply an “interim measure” to prevent finch trapping while the ECJ hearing is pending.

Joe Perici Calascione, president of hunting federation FKNK, has insisted that Malta can convince the EU court that it can apply a strictly supervised derogation on finch trapping, similar to the one it currently applies on spring hunting.

In a statement, the government said that its derogation was carried out after technical meetings with the European Commission, as well as subject to written correspondence whereby the Maltese authorities have provided the Commission with the detailed technical, scientific and legal account of Malta’s compliance with the European law.

"Despite common understanding reached on some legal aspects of the derogation, Commission appears to have not taken into consideration the technical and scientific materials provided to it in relation to this derogation," the government said.

It added that it believed that the derogation was applied in its limited and strictly controlled conditions within the parameters of Article 9 (1)(c) of the Birds Directive, which comprises the “no other satisfactory solution”, “judicious use”, “small numbers”, “selectivity” and “strict supervision” criteria.

"The Government furthermore ascertained, through a scientific assessment, that the application of this derogation does not negatively impact the population status of the seven finch species... the government is prepared to defend Malta’s right to derogate in the Court of Justice of the European Union."

PN reaction

In a reaction, the PN’s spokesperson for hunting and trapping, Charlò Bonnici, accused Joseph Muscat of having fooled “both environmentalists as well as hunters and trappers.”

“Today’s news that Malta is being taken up to the ECJ is proof of this. Muscat promised trappers the world just to have their vote. He fooled them. The truth is finally out. It is ironic that the man responsible for taking up Malta to the ECJ is the same one who penned the Labour Party’s electoral programme, Karmenu Vella,” Bonnici said referring to the Commissioner responsible for environment.
 

BirdLife calls on EC to ban finch trapping for duration of case

BirdLife Malta welcomed the EC’s decision to take Malta to court, and reiterated their call for them to apply an interim court junction to ban finch trapping for the duration of the case.

“If they do not apply an interim suspension, finch trapping will begin again in less than a month with thousands of birds needlessly caught from the wild,” BirdLife conservation manager Nicholas Barbara told MaltaToday.