Mifsud Bonnici hits out at EU, government, over hunting

Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici, chairman of the Campaign for National Independence (CNI), said this morning that the European Court's decision to ban spring hunting this year impinged on the good faith of the Maltese government and the European Commission in the EU membership negotiations.

Dr Mifsud Bonnici, former leader of the Labour Party, said he would not go into the merits of whether or not spring hunting should be allowed, but before the EU membership referendum, the then prime minister, Dr Gonzi as his deputy, as well as then Foreign Minister Joe Borg and then MIC chairman Simon Busuttil had officially told the people that spring hunting would be allowed even when Malta joined the EU.

Therefore, was somebody lying?

If it was the government that had been lying to the people, then the people concerned should resign. If it was the commission which had lied to the government, then something should be done to take Malta out of the EU, Dr Mifsud Bonnici said, because the people had voted for accession on a package of information which included spring hunting.

Dr Mifsud Bonnici said the government had known for some time that the EU was going to come down on spring hunting, but it had failed to grab opportunities to insist on preserving its position. These opportunities included the negotiations and signing of the Lisbon reform treaty and the accession talks with Bulgaria and Romania.

Those opportunities could also have been used for Malta to insist that state aid to the Malta Shipyards should be allowed, Dr Mifsud Bonnici said.