The European Court of Justice has decided to uphold a request by the European Commission to ban spring hunting this year until a final decision is taken by the court on the future of spring hunting. To date Maltese hunters had been allowed to hunt for Turtle Dove and Quail.
The decision was welcomed by BirdLife Malta..
"The overwhelming majority of the Maltese are against spring hunting and they want to see their government protect our common European natural heritage. It is now time for law enforcement against illegal bird shooting and trapping to be stepped up so that this ban will be effective," BirdLife president Joseph Mangion said.
The court, headed by President of the Court, Vassilios Skouris, had been deliberating on the interim measure since April 2, when the last oral submissions by lawyers for the Maltese government and the Commission were made behind closed doors.
The Maltese government had argued that spring hunting should be allowed in terms of a derogation negotiated as part of the EU accession package.
Malta's team of lawyers included a Belgian lawyer specialising in the environment and in the Birds Directive.
Hearings before the court for a final decision on the future of spring hunting have not started yet.
The Commission is asking the court to declare that, by failing tomeet the conditions set out in Article 9 of Council Directive79/409/EEC on the conservation of wild birds, the Republic of Malta hasfailed to fulfill its obligations under Article 7 of the Directive forthe hunting of quail and turtle dove during spring migration.
Since accession to EU on May 1, 2004, the Maltese authorities haveexercised the right to apply the derogation in Article 9(1) of thedirective for the hunting of quail and turtle dove during the springmigration period when they return to their nesting ground.
The question raised in the proceedings is whether the Malteseauthorities fall within the scope of the derogation in Article 9 (1)which would permit the hunting of the species in question in spring onthe basis that there is no other satisfactory solution.