[WATCH] Vella ‘unaware’ of scrapped plans to sue Malta over spring hunting

Vella says European Commission 'delighted' with spring hunting moratorium. Video: Raphael Farrugia

European environment commissioner Karmenu Vella claimed to be unaware whether plans to open infringement procedures against Malta over this year’s spring hunting season were discarded due to the government's decision to impose a moratorium .

Sources close to the European Commission have informed MaltaToday that its monthly infringement package announced last Thursday was originally supposed to include action against Malta for permitting hunters to shoot the vulnerable turtle dove last April.

However, this plan was reportedly scrapped after the EC were informed of the Maltese government’s intention to impose a moratorium on the hunting of turtle dove.

When questioned by MaltaToday, Vella first asked where the information came from and then said that he is not the right person to speak to because “the original agenda wasn’t in my hands”.

“What I can say is that the European Commission is delighted with the way the Maltese government and the hunters reached an agreement to impose a moratorium,” he said.

Following a call by hunting lobby FKNK, government last week announced a moratorium on next spring’s hunting season of turtledove, in light of its classification as a vulnerable species by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. Hunters will however still be allowed to hunt quail.

It has argued that the number of turtle doves (5,000 last month) killed during Malta’s spring hunting season is less than 1% - and hence negligible – of those killed across Europe every year.

However, it said that Malta will apply the moratorium voluntarily “as a precautionary measure to allow for an impartial and objective scientific assessment to be conducted at European level to establish the causes of the turtledove’s population decline and to provide for measures necessary for the conservation of the species in Europe”.

BirdLife Malta have urged the government to ban spring hunting outright, rather than suspend it and re-open it when it is convenient to them. BirdLife Europe director Angelo Caserta said that the moratorium should not factor into the European Commission’s decision to investigate Malta for potentially breaching EU law by permitting the hunters to shoot the vulnerable turtle dove during this year’s spring hunting season.