Hunters launch appeal to President

The hunters' federation (FKNK) yesterday submitted a resolution to President Eddie Fenech Adami calling on him to intervene in the question of spring hunting.

The resolution recalls letters sent to 17,000 hunters and their families in 2003, when Dr Fenech Adami was Prime Minister, assuring them that they would continue to practise their hobby even after EU accession.

The resolution also points out that in the April 2003 EU accession agreement signed by him, hunting in spring was accepted as one of the 77 special arrangements between Malta and the EU.

The resolution, that was adopted by hunters during a public meeting in Rabat last Sunday, was handed to the President's secretary, Pierre Cauchi, by FKNK secretary Lino Farrugia and its president Joseph Buttigieg at the Palace in Valletta.

"We are appealing to your personal 'integrity and honour' as well as to you as President of Malta to intervene personally so that this section of the Maltese people (hunters and trappers) would no longer continue to suffer an injustice at the hands of the European Union, which injustice is based completely on a misrepresentation of facts," the FKNK said.

The European Commission has started legal proceedings against Malta in the European Court of Justice asking for a ban on spring hunting, which is already restricted to turtle dove and quail.

Mr Farrugia told the media before presenting the resolution that, since the EU was not honouring the special arrangement, it feared that Brussels would act in a similar way in regard to other special arrangements with Malta.

The FKNK yesterday continued collecting signatures for a petition, appealing to the EU Commission to withdraw its attempt to nullify the special arrangement on spring hunting.

The petition argues that what is happening in the case of spring hunting could lead to the eventual crumbling of the other 76 special arrangements affecting other sectors. This would also send a clear message to the Maltese population that EU membership was based on a hoax, the petition says.