BirdLife file judicial protest over illegal trapping law

BirdLife Malta has filed a judicial protest against Gozo and environment ministers Clint Camilleri and Aaron Farrugia, as well as the Wild Birds Regulation Unit (WBRU) and the Environment and Resources Authority (ERA), demanding the revocation of the new framework trapping law.

The new law, introduced a week after repealing a trapping law under EU infringement, gave 2,500 trappers the green light to practise finch trapping – illegal under EU laws – under the guise of a scientific ‘research’ project.

The protest, filed by Dr Claire Bonello on behalf of BirdLife, states that the law itself had to be preceded by a period of public consultation.

The protest blames Gozo minister Clint Camilleri of circumventing the requirements set by the Environment Protection Act which demand such regulations are subject to a public consultation exercise before being published.

The Framework Law allowing finch trapping under a ‘research’ derogation was issued a few hours before the opening of the season on 20 October, without the mandatory four-week public consultation.

BirdLife CEO Mark Sultana said that in its last meeting, the consultative committee Ornis passed a motion to refrain from making its usual recommendation on the season, due to ongoing infringement proceedings by the European Commission.

Framework laws set the parameters within which trapping or hunting seasons can be opened.

“The ‘research’ derogation framework law was issued afresh less than a week after last year’s regulations were repealed on the 14 October. These included an overnight transformation of over 2,500 trappers into specially licensed ‘researchers’, able to operate across an equal number of trapping sites across Malta and Gozo,” Sultana said.

“Nobody is above the law. Both ministers need to respect the environment laws to the full and we strongly believe that they have breached the Environment Protection Act by enacting a law without a public consultation period. We are talking about a country-wide activity on both private and public land, even within Natura 2000 sites, to the detriment of the rest of the Maltese and Gozitan citizens. To add insult to injury, the citizens were not given the opportunity to be consulted even if the law demands this.”

Infringement proceedings

This year’s autumn trapping season is Malta’s second attempt at justifying trapping of finches for ‘research’ purposes, after last year’s season elicited the opening of an infringement procedure by the EC in December 2020.

The Wild Birds Regulation Unit failed to justify the ‘research’ project to Brussels, which proceeded with a second warning on the practice last June.

“Government has failed to justify the ‘research’ excuse of finch trapping to the EC,” Sultana said.

“When the infringement process intensified, rather than seeing the obvious and ending this charade, the Government insisted to continue challenging the Commission. This derogation goes against the European Birds Directive, the EU’s Acquis Communautaire which Malta signed when it joined the EU, and even the European Court of Justice’s ruling of 2018 which found Malta guilty of opening finch trapping seasons in previous years.”

With thousands of trapping sites operating, thousands of finches are being killed or ending up permanently caged under the excuse of ‘research’, Sultana said.

“Over the past weeks, we have reported to police various illegal activities – from the illegal catching of finches to their trade. Our actions and those of the Committee Against Bird Slaughter (CABS) have so far resulted in the confiscation of over 500 finches by police units since the start of the season.”

BirdLife Malta has relayed its position to the European Commission over the past weeks, demanding a quick and effective referral to the European Court of Justice (ECJ). Government’s actions in enacting legislation without the mandatory public consultation process, and its insistence in continuing to mock scientific research with the killing of thousands of protected birds, is a clear sign that the EU should step in and regulate Malta’s conformity to the European Birds Directive once again at the ECJ.