The European Commission yesterday expressed its satisfaction at what it described as a unique deal reached on a restricted spring hunting season but warned other member states that this was not to be used as a precedent.

The Commission referred to the European Court of Justice (ECH) ruling which stated that in Malta, “spring hunting is an exception from the general rule under the Birds Directive which prohibits the hunting of birds during this period”.

“The situation in Malta is very specific given that the ECJ found that hunting in autumn was not a sufficient alternative to spring. However, the Commission wishes to emphasise that the uniqueness of the Maltese case should not be regarded as a precedent by any other member state,” a Commission spokesman told The Times.

The deal concluded weeks of discussions with the Maltese authorities aimed at resolving shortcomings identified by the Commission in its Letter of Formal Notice issued last October.

The deal, announced in Parliament on Monday by the Prime Minister, will allow hunters to shoot up to 5,000 quails and 11,000 turtledoves in spring.

However, the legal notice permitting spring hunting to open lays down a formula to calculate, year by year, whether Malta can apply a derogation and set the quota. If fewer than 10,000 birds of each species are hunted in autumn, hunters will be able to shoot the full spring quota – 5,000 quails and 11,000 turtledoves. However, if more than 10,000 birds are shot, the number that can be hunted 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 this week after the Ornis Committee makes its recommendations to the government.

The Commission commented positively on the mechanism and the fact that the spring season was being made dependent on autumn hunting opportunities. It noted that the legislation does not permit the opening of any spring hunting derogation should the overall quotas set out be exceeded during the previous autumn season.

As for the maximum spring limit, the Commission said it considered this threshold to be in line with the so-called “small number” criterion – a technical benchmark set out in the Birds Directive.

However, Brussels made it clear that this is the maximum possible number of birds ever to be allowed to be hunted in spring. “The Commission wishes to underline that it would not be possible to allow for any greater taking and that this is an exceptional measure under the Birds Directive due to the unique situation of Malta, as recognised by the judgment of the ECJ,” the spokesman said.

He also had a word of caution regarding enforcement, pointing out that the Commission expected a strict and verifiable data collection exercise to determine the number of birds hunters would be shooting.

While taking note of the system of enforcement set out under the new Framework Regulations, the Commission underlined the importance of “close supervision to demonstrate that the system will work in practice during the application of any particular spring hunting derogation in the future.”

Hunting marshals will be assisting the police to enforce the new legislation.

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.