Labour MEP rebukes Brussels on trapping ban

Labour MEP John Attard Montalto yesterday called the European Commission’s legal action against Malta over the continuation of trapping a “belated pathetic attempt” to eradicate a tradition and even attached “unexplained deaths” to this decision.

Tabling a parliamentary question on behalf of the Maltese hunting and trapping lobby, the FKNK, he asked the Commission to explain its objections after “having kept silent for seven years”.

Dr Attard Montalto, who is openly considered by the Maltese hunting lobby as their representative in Brussels, also asked whether before its June decision to issue a letter of formal notice against Malta, the first stage of legal procedures, the EU Executive had sought the opinion of hunters and the Maltese government other than “the biased correspondence submitted by the anti-trapping and anti-hunting BirdLife Malta”.

In his parliamentary question, Dr Attard Montalto refers to “unexplained deaths” among the trapping community.

“Is the Commission aware that this belatedly pathetic attempt to eradicate a deeply-rooted socio-cultural Maltese tradition, at the behest of extremists, is having a life-threatening effect on up to 8,000 EU citizens (Maltese bird trappers and their suffering families), who regard this practice as a way of life they cannot do without, to the extent that there have been unexplained deaths,” he asked.

The notion that the ban on trapping had led to suicides was raised in the past by the FKNK, which had also said that there had been “a marked increase in psychiatric disorders among its members”.

The FKNK publicly thanked Dr Attard Montalto “for his continuous support of the Maltese traditional socio-cultural passions of hunting and trapping”.

Dr Attard Montalto was last year appointed life honorary president of the FKNK.

According to EU rules, including Malta’s Act of Accession, trapping was expected to be completely outlawed in Malta by the end of 2008 following a five-year transition period, during which the Commission granted the island “special conditions” to continue to allow trapping of certain wild birds after accession, although on a limited scale.

However, to continue allowing trapping post 2008, Malta decided to apply a derogation permitting the trapping of four species (turtle dove, quail, golden plover and song thrush).

EU rules lay down that similar derogations are allowed by the Birds Directive. However, the Commission is arguing in its legal action that Malta’s action was not justified.

Subsequently, the government decided not to implement a recommendation by the Ornis committee for the application of a derogation allowing trapping this season as well, until the necessary documentation was submitted as stipulated by law.