EU Commission invites hunters, BirdLife to Brussels meeting

The European Commission's Environment Directorate will next week meet in Brussels to discuss the Maltese hunting issue.

The directorate has invited representatives from BirdLife Malta and from the Federation for Hunting and Conservation to attend the meeting.

Other representatives include those from the Federation of EU Hunting Asociations (Face), BirdLife International, the Malta Environment and Planning Authority and from Malta's permanent representation in Brussels.

The meeting will be held next Monday and officials responsible for the EU infringement procedures are expected to be there.

The hunting federation's general secretary Lino Farrugia said the federation was taking this meeting seriously and had prepared a lengthy dossier about hunting practices in Malta and how laws should be changed to satisfy EU rules yet safeguard "traditional hunting".

"The agenda is still in draft form and a bit vague, but we should be discussing both hunting and trapping, the legal situation, the Birds directive as well as the infringement procedure.

"We are tackling the issue of infringement procedures in our paper too," Mr Farrugia said.

BirdLife Malta director Tolga Temuge said the purpose of the meeting is not to engage in negotiation but to give one last full clarification about the legal situation.

BirdLife Malta had received an unofficial invitation from the European Commission to attend the meeting, Mr Temuge said.

"As BirdLife, we have not as yet given an official answer whether or not we would be attending this meeting.

"BirdLife Malta and BirdLife International are considering attending this meeting but we do not see it as a critical one that will define the future of hunting in spring.

"There is no question that illegal hunting and spring hunting in Malta should be stopped. The European Commission has already made its position clear by opening the infringement process against the government in this regard.

"The government has to this date failed to come up with an adequate plan to phase out trapping by the end of 2008," Mr Temuge said.