Overhaul of Birds Directive won’t stop birds’ massacre, BirdLife tells Vella

BirdLife Malta has sent an open letter to Environment European Commissioner-designate Karmenu Vella, ahead of his grilling by MEPs in Brussels on Monday.

It warned that an overhaul of the legislation would not support an improvement in the illegal killing of birds. It suggested that a critical look and evaluation of the implementation of the Birds Directive and clear targeting of where derogations from it are abused to allow unsustainable used of birds, is likely to be by far the most successful way in ensuring the conservation of birds in Europe.

In the letter, BirdLife Malta urged Vella to give clear and unequivocal answers to questions about the Birds Directive and how he will deal with how it is misapplied in Malta and elsewhere. 

This follows comments by outgoing European Commissioner Janez Potocnik at a conference earlier this week in which he clearly challenged Vella to deal with the problems in Malta caused by a “small minority,” and that hunting and illegal killing and trapping are undeniable problems in “several regions in Europe.”

“The outgoing Commissioner made veiled comments about the situation in Malta in his speech and it is very clear that expectations are very high for Karmenu Vella to deal with Malta and other countries that abuse the Birds Directive to allow unsustainable hunting and trapping,” BirdLife Malta Executive Director Steve Micklewright said.

In its open letter, BirdLife Malta called on Vella to clearly state his position on a number of key issues that affect Malta in particular. 

“Malta currently exploits its ability to make exceptions from the Birds Directive through derogations to allow hunting in spring and the trapping of birds.  These are expressly forbidden by the Birds Directive and Mr Vella needs to explain how he is going to stop such abuses of EU rules which currently benefit vociferous and powerful interest groups such as the Maltese hunting community,” Micklewright added.

Potocnik also indicated that closer cooperation between the authorities, hunters and conservationists is needed on the ground in countries where illegal and unsustainable hunting is a problem. 

“Recent events in Malta have shown that the hunting community reacts badly and violently when they do not get their way.  Based on his knowledge of the situation in Malta, Mr Vella should be able to provide insights into how there can be greater cooperation between hunters and conservationists, something which is desperately needed in several other EU countries, including Cyprus,” Micklewright said.

“The open letter has been circulated to all of the MEPs who will grill him about environmental issues and BirdLife will be watching the discussion with great interest.”