Hunters' federation fumes over EU court action

The Federation for Hunting and Conservation - Malta (FKNK) expressed its disappointment today over the European Commission's decision to take Malta to court over spring hunting.

It said the commission "is oblivious of the reality of the situation and insists on basing its case on evidence that is rooted on gross misinformation and outright lies".

"The commission is basically stating that the first 15 days of September are a suitable alternative to the hunting of only the turtle dove and the quail for a short period, under strictly supervised conditions and in small numbers, during spring. The facts are facts and the commission has never, since Malta joined the EU, accepted FKNK's various offers to send first hand fact-finding missions throughout both the Spring and Fall migrations in Malta," the federation said.

Referring to the Commission's request to the court to issue interim measures pending its final verdict by ordering Malta to stop spring hunting, the federation said such a measure would defeat the whole scope of justice by reversing the human rights norm of being innocent until proven guilty.

The federation was also critical of the Maltese government, saying it was adding insult to injury by wrongly stating that the ‘evidence' data being used by the commission was given to the commission by the FKNK.

The federation said it had this morning it commenced legal proceedings in the local courts to safeguard spring hunting, based on documents from the Office of the Malta Prime Minister, the Malta/EU Information and the negotiated Agreed Instrument between Malta and the EU prior to Malta's EU Membership. Those documents, the federation said, clearly state that by means of the application of a derogation under the 'Birds' Directive, Malta as an EU member state could still permit hunting in spring.The FKNK said such legal action could not be avoided since it wasaware that it has to exhaust all legal measures at local level before proceeding with the next step of seeking legal redress at the ECJ level.

"The FKNK also believes that a serious institution such as the ECJ will not base its verdict on evidence full of lies and will allow Malta to make and prove its case. The FKNK
further believes that the ECJ will respect the norms of justice and seriously and objectively consider the individual and specifically unique circumstances prevailing and that it will not accept emotion and inconsistency. At the same time the FKNK also believes that the ECJ will allow us to equitably make use of the opportunities of the Bird sDirective without discarding its obligations," the federation said.