Limited spring hunting possibility under study

The government said this evening that its legal advisors would examine today's European Court judgement to ascertain whether there was any possibility for very limited hunting under strict controls to be allowed in spring in Malta.

The court in its decision said that opening a spring hunting season at a time when quails and turtle doves were returning to their rearing grounds resulted in a mortality rate three times higher (around 15,000 birds killed) for quails and eight times higher (around 32,000 birds killed) for turtle doves compared to the autumn hunting season. This did not constitute an adequate solution that was strictly proportionate to the Birds Directive's objective of conservation of the species.

Malta had thus violated the Birds Directive by allowing spring hunting between 2004 and 2007.

The court said, however, that hunters were able to capture only a negligible number of birds in the autumn and during that season, only a restricted part of the territory of Malta was visited by those birds. Finally these species were listed in the ‘least concern' category.

The government said that while the court had conceded Malta's arguments that the autumn hunting season could not be considered as a satisfactory solution, nevertheless, this finding, far from opening up, without limit, the possibility of authorising hunting in spring, did so only so far as it was strictly necessary and provided that the other objectives pursued by the directive were not jeopardised.

"Whereas the Court has made it clear that the way the derogation was applied in Malta was not in line with EU law, unlike in the case of Commission v Finland of 15 December 2005 (Case C-344/03) where autumn hunting was declared to be an acceptable alternative to spring hunting, in today's judgement the Court left space for a proportionate use of the derogation for spring hunting in Malta."

The government noted that in the past few years it had introduced a number of restrictive measures on hunting in spring in an effort to bring the practice within the spirit of the Birds Directive. However, these limited measures were always met with opposition from hunters' organisations.

Its legal advisors would now examine today's court judgement to ascertain whether there was any possibility for very limited hunting under strict controls to be allowed in spring in Malta.