Hunters will be able to shoot up to 5,000 quails and 11,000 turtledoves in spring under a compromise agreement with the EU announced by the Prime Minister yesterday.

The quota for spring will depend on a limit in autumn of 20,000 quails and 21,000 turtledoves. If this limit is exceeded in the autumn months, there will be no spring hunting.

The details of the new parameters were criticised by both the Hunters’ Federation and BirdLife yesterday, which promised more detailed reactions in the coming days.

The legal notice lays down the formula to calculate, year by year, whether Malta can apply a spring hunting derogation and set the quota. In fact, if less than 10,000 birds of each species are hunted in autumn, hunters will be able to hunt the full spring quota – 5,000 quails and 11,000 turtledoves.

However, if more than 10,000 birds are shot down, the number that can he hunted in autumn is reduced from the spring bag limit through a formula laid out in the legal notice.

The bag limit for this spring still has to be worked out and will be announced in another legal notice expected to be published later this week once the Ornis Committee makes its recommendations to the government today.

In an initial reaction to the legal notice, made public yesterday evening in Parliament by Lawrence Gonzi, the hunters’ federation said it seemed as though the government was trying to please both the European Commission (that scrutinised Malta’s derogations) and hunters (by opening the season to appease them).

Lino Farrugia, from the federation, said that, while FKNK was still examining the legal notice, he disagreed with the way in which the bag limit was calculated, saying it was “wrong scientifically”.

According to the legal notice, the bag limit for each spring should not exceed one per cent of the annual mortality rate of each species or the stipulated limit of 5,000 quails and 11,000 turtledoves, whichever is higher.

However, Mr Farrugia said the percentage was “much higher” than the benchmark limits set in the legal notice. Birdlife pointed out that this was the second amendment to the framework legislation in just a few weeks which had not been discussed at the Ornis Committee – the official body set up to advise the government on hunting. The first amendment removed the previous limit of 2,500 hunting licences for spring hunting. “This shows the committee is nothing more than a smokescreen. These tactics show the spring hunting issue is a political one, and this is bound to try the Com­­mission’s patience,” Birdlife said.

The EU Birds’ Directive does not allow spring hunting unless there are special circumstances and a derogation is applied by a country. The EU only allows a derogation if it can be proven that a country does not have a suitable alternative to spring hunting.

In September 2009 the European Court of Justice ruled that, by allowing spring hunting, Malta had breached the Birds’ Directive. The court, however, argued that hunting in autumn was not a sufficient alternative to spring – leaving the door open to negotiations to determine a bird quota that could be shot in spring. This new legal notice is intended to provide just that quota.

Dr Gonzi said this was a first-time “exceptional” agreement of its kind that the EU had ever reached on a spring hunting derogation within any member state.

He said the Commission made it clear this agreement was the “absolute maximum acceptable position” for the implementation of the derogation. Dr Gonzi said that through this agreement, which came after months of negotiations, Malta was safeguarding the hunting tradition while respecting nature and the environment.

He called on hunters to cooperate with this legal notice, which includes enforcement mechanisms such as the introduction of hunting marshals to assist the police. There will be seven marshals for every 1,000 of the 10,000 or so licensed hunters in Malta.

In the past, the effectiveness of hunting quotas had been questioned due to lack of enforcement. As things stand, hunters are legally bound to log their catches in their Carnet de Chasse and this self-regulatory element had been ­­­criticised as being open to abuse.

Dr Gonzi warned that the derogation would only apply if the Commission was satisfied that it was being applied correctly. “If hunters do not cooperate there can only be one outcome: no more spring hunting,” he said. Birdlife said the Commission last October issued a letter of formal notice in reaction to Malta’s spring hunting framework legislation. How­ever, rather than addressing the Commission’s concerns, the government has made enforcement even more difficult through the legal amendment.

“The government is also misinforming the Maltese taxpayer by stating that they have reached an agreement with the Commission on spring hunting. The Commission does not make agreements with member states on derogations and it is the country’s responsibility to ensure that any derogations applied are in accordance with EU legislation,” Birdlife said.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.