The European Commission is today expected to ask the European Court of Justice (ECJ) to stop Malta from opening the hunting season this spring.
In a meeting today, the College of Commissioners is expected to decide to take the Maltese spring hunting case to the ECJ, a Commission source told The Times yesterday. Concurrently, it will file an extraordinary application so that, until the main case is decided, the Maltese authorities will still be barred from allowing hunting next spring.
"We have warned Malta over the past years that, according to the Commission, the continuation of spring hunting is illegal and goes against EU law," the source said.
"As Malta did not come in line and continued to allow spring hunting, we will now have to take extreme measures to make sure that no hunting is allowed in spring or until the proper court case is decided."
Malta had been served with two written warnings by the Commission over this issue, a first formal notice in July 2006 and a reasoned opinion last October.
The island replied officially to both letters but did not specify that it would stop spring hunting as it argues that, prior to accession, it had negotiated the right to apply a derogation to allow hunting for turtle doves and quail.
The Commission source said the expected application will be made under the ECJ''s "special form of procedure" so that an injunction will be issued against the Maltese authorities prohibiting them from granting permission for spring hunting until the original court case is decided.
European court experts said the ECJ normally takes two to three years to decide a case similar to Malta's. However, as the Commission believes that the issue is urgent it will also ask the court to take interim measures and the court will declare itself in a matter of weeks or even days.
According to the experts, interim measures are granted under strict conditions. The substance of the main proceedings must appear, at first sight, to be well founded. The applicant (the Commission) must show that the measures are urgent and that it would suffer serious and irreparable harm without them. The interim measures must also take account of the balance of the parties' interests and of the public interest.
A spokesman for the ECJ said yesterday an application by the Commission for interim measures is only used in rare cases where there is need for urgent and fast track decisions to be taken. Last year, there were only three cases where applications for the issue of interim measures were filed out of a total of 573 court procedures that were started.
The spokesman said that, according to the procedures, the president of the ECJ may issue an order even before the observations of the opposite party have been submitted. Under normal circumstances, a hearing is held before a decision on interim measures is made.
It is not yet decided how the case against Malta will be dealt with by the ECJ as the Commission is only expected to file its application today. Commission sources told The Times the ECJ is likely to accept the Commission's request in a few weeks' time. This would mean that hunting would not be able to take place in Malta this spring.
Last week, the government said it had not yet decided whether to open the spring hunting season in March and was waiting for the opinion of the Ornis committee on the issue.
Government sources said they were aware of a possible decision to be taken by the Commission but would only comment when the actual decision is made.
The Sunday Times reported last Sunday that the EU executive had rejected an 11th hour proposal by the Maltese hunters' federation (FKNK) to allow hunting on quail and turtle dove "in small numbers and under strictly supervised conditions".
A Commission spokesman had told this newspaper the Commission had already said that "another satisfactory solution is available in Malta where it is possible to hunt at another time of year - during autumn".
Since its accession to the EU, Malta has allowed spring hunting to take place in four spring seasons against the wishes of the European Commission.
Chronology of actions on spring hunting
July 2006 - The Commission decides to send a first warning letter to Malta over the spring hunting of two species of birds: quails (Coturnix coturnix) and turtle doves (Streptopelia turtur). The Commission claims that the granting by Malta of a derogation between May 1 and 22, 2004 was not in accordance with the strict conditions governing this derogation as "a satisfactory solution to spring hunting existed during the autumn hunting season".
September 2006 - Deadline for Malta's reply elapses. Commission decides to give Malta a further two months to reply.
March 2007 - Malta sends reply to first warning letter. It says it believes it has acted in line with EU law with respect to the application of the derogation for spring hunting under article 9 of the Birds Directive and has also acted fully within the spirit of the accession negotiations.
Late March 2007 - Spring hunting allowed again. The European Commission decides to send a supplementary letter of formal notice to the government over the issue, widening the scope of the infringement to cover similar derogations granted by Malta for the spring hunting seasons of 2005, 2006 and 2007.
October 2007 - Malta's arguments rejected. The Commission decides to move to its second stage of legal proceedings sending Malta a reasoned opinion. The Commission states that it believes that alternative solutions to spring hunting exist in autumn.
January 2008 - Malta replies to reasoned opinion.