[attach id=240184 size="medium"]FKNK president Joe Perici Calascione was angered by a PN advert in yesterday’s newspapers, which took a dig at the hunters’ agreement with Labour. Photo: Darrin Zammit Lupi[/attach]
Hunters have lifted the lid on talks they were having with the Government to introduce a fixed autumn hunting season and other legislative changes.
Joe Perici Calascione, president of the hunters’ federation, FKNK, yesterday said the Government had been favourably considering a fixed hunting season.
Last month, he added, the Environment Ministry was “on the verge” of issuing a legal notice to introduce a fixed season and remove ambiguities from hunting legislation.
“Why this was not issued is anybody’s guess but correspondence with the ministry continued being exchanged until last week,” Mr Perici Calascione said.
He was addressing a press conference at the federation’s headquarters in Msida in the wake of an agreement made public this week between the Labour Party and the FKNK.
Labour has pledged to introduce a fixed hunting season, remove the €50 special licence for spring hunting and “correctly” apply EU derogations to allow a limited spring hunting season and trapping of European finches in autumn.
Asked to define the word “correctly”, Mr Perici Calascione said the Government had applied the derogation on spring hunting incorrectly 12 times.
“This ranged from not following the European Commission’s template to justify the derogation to adopting a holier-than-the-Pope attitude by introducing conditions not requested by Brussels.”
He said the individual bag limits for hunters in spring were not requested by the European Commission but imposed by the Maltese Government.
Brussels is satisfied with a national bag limit, he added. Mr Perici Calascione said the formula adopted by the European Commission would allow hunters to shoot up to 120,000 quails and 79,000 turtle doves.
Last year, following consultation with Brussels, the season was opened between April 14 and 30 with a national bag limit of 11,000 turtle doves and 5,000 quails.
In 1998, when the PN was in opposition, Lawrence Gonzi signed an agreement promising hunters would not lose their rights
“We are in no way saying that we want these higher limits but this goes to show that the limits adopted by the Maltese Government are ridiculously low.”
When asked what guarantee hunters had that the PL would not take them for a ride, Mr Perici Calascione said that a similar agreement with PL in 1996 was implemented within a month of the election.
Angered by a PN advert in yesterday’s newspapers, which took a dig at the hunters’ agreement with Labour, Mr Perici Calascione said the party was adopting two weights and two measures.
“In 1998, when the PN was in opposition, then secretary general Lawrence Gonzi had signed an agreement promising hunters they would not lose their rights,” Mr Perici Calascione said.
He lamented the fact that the PN had failed to meet the FKNK despite repeated requests to do so.
The same complaint was made by Birdlife, a bird conservation group, yesterday after meeting a delegation from Alternattiva Demokratika at the Is-Simar Nature Reserve in Xemxija.
Last week Birdlife met with Labour leader Joseph Muscat. In a statement, the conservation group said Lawrence Gonzi and the Nationalist Party had an open invitation since January to do the same.
Birdlife executive director Steve Micklewright also referred to the PN campaign advert published yesterday and said if the party was sincere about tackling illegal hunting, bird conservation and countryside access, there was still time for it to make a clear commitment.
During the visit Birdlife and AD discussed wildlife protection and environmental policy.
AD chairman Michael Briguglio said his party supported Birdlife’s call for Malta to adhere to the Birds Directive without applying derogations for spring hunting of turtle doves and quails.
Mr Briguglio said he was shocked by the PL’s contradictory statement that it would reintroduce the practice of finch-trapping if elected while at the same time saying it would not re-open discussions on what was agreed with the EU at accession.
ksansone@timesofmalta.com