The spring hunting issue has now become a never-ending torturous saga, indeed a topic surrounded by uncertainty and bitter controversy. In the light of the European Commissioner’s recent threat to once again take Malta to the European Court of Justice, it will not be amiss to remind all of the salient events since the eve of Malta’s accession to the EU.
During the EU referendum campaign, many hunters felt that joining the EU was a great concern and to many a mental conflict as while from the political, economic and social aspect they favoured Malta becoming a member state, they were apprehensive of the future of their passionate hobby, in particular spring hunting. To many this is their only recreation.
The air was soon cleared of this uncertainty. The Malta-EU Information Centre (MIC), in its special edition of Aġġornat of October 2002 – Special Edition number 13, unequivocally publicly declared Malta had closed negotiations on the environment and, inter alia, stated: “Bird hunting will continue in spring.”
On February 5, 2008, Simon Busuttil, in reply to my letter of February 2, assured me MIC’s publication was truthful and based on, among other things, the official EU Common Position dated September 27, 2002 on the results of accession negotiations on the environment (CONF-M 110/02), which acknowledged it is indeed possible to use a derogation available in EU law to allow spring hunting under certain conditions and that Malta would be doing so after accession. He also added: “This was confirmed again by the European Commission in its announcement only last week.”
This guarantee was also confirmed by Prime Minister Eddie Fenech Adami who went as far as signing and mailing thousands of letters informing individual hunters that spring hunting will continue following accession.
The hunting federation, FKNK, still had reservations and warned that joining the EU would jeopardise the future of hunting in Malta. Frankly, I simply could not understand how FKNK could make such statements after the government’s clear and unambiguous assurances. I was wrong; FKNK were right.
Eventually, confronted with these facts, the European Commission that had brought Malta before the ECJ and Günter Verheugen, EU Commissioner for Enlargement during Malta’s negotiations, said they never gave any commitments. Mr Verheugen and other EU officials know very well that, if such statements were false, they should have shouted out in good time; as the saying goes, silence is consent. It is a pity that Malta’s accession, in my opinion a very important milestone in our history, was tainted with this lamentable comedy.
Following accession, spring hunting seasons opened from 2004 through to 2007. In February 2008, the commissioner decided to take Malta before the ECJ claiming it was in breach of the Birds Directive, basing its argument mainly on its contention that autumn provided a satisfactory alternative.
Notwithstanding the past declarations, all interested parties, including the Maltese government, FKNK and BirdLife agreed that the ECJ is the best place where this agonising matter should be settled. FKNK and BirdLife both declared the ECJ’s decision would be respected. In the meantime, until the ECJ was considering the case, the Maltese hunter was deprived of the 2008 and 2009 seasons. This year was marked by a pseudo opened season.
In September 2009, to the surprise of many, many who either know very little about the turtle dove or quail migration or who are very knowledgeable but have little faith in the ECJ, the Court held that the government of Malta improperly applied a derogation but did not dismiss Malta’s right to a derogation to allow spring hunting. More than that, the ECJ rejected the claim by the Commission that autumn is a satisfactory alternative.
However, notwithstanding statements and promises made prior to the announcement of the ECJ’s judgment, BirdLife, again, did not honour its promise to respect the ECJ’s decision and embarked on its usual campaign in an attempt to stop the Maltese government from applying the derogation within the parameters of article 9 (1) of Directive 79/409/ EEC. Worse than that, the Commissioner is now, again, threatening us with heavy fines.
Hats off to the government’s declaration that this is our right and that we will not be scared by the commissioner’s threats. The Maltese government is obliged to stand its ground to preserve our rights as full EU citizens. There were a number of negotiated derogations prior to accession; spring hunting is just one of them.