When six former or serving executive presidents of the leading cultural heritage and environmental NGO, Din l-Art Ħelwa, feel impelled to write a joint letter to the Prime Minister expressing their deep concern about the Maltese environment, it is time for the government to sit up and take notice.

The government’s plans for the extension of the hunting season in autumn, the continuation of bird shooting in spring and the reintroduction of finch trapping after it was phased out five years ago are as much of environmental concern as the construction planning depredations highlighted by the DLĦ appeal.

The government appears to have made a pre-election Faustian deal with hunters and trappers (and the developers’ lobby), which is now about to haunt the country, and, ultimately, the government itself, as the vast majority of Maltese see the natural landscape and rare species being taken over by narrow interest groups.

However, the concern about the effects of bird trapping does not simply extend to the Maltese people. The European Commission has launched infringement proceedings against Malta about its plans to do so, sparking a defiant reaction from the government saying it “disagreed” with the Commission’s interpretation of the Birds Directive.

It would not go back on the decision. “The government will continue to defend the legitimate rights of Maltese live-bird capture in full accordance with national and EU law,” it said.

The autumn live trapping of seven species of wild finches, including golden plover and song thrush – song-birds that are protected under EU legislation – started on October 20 and will go on until the end of this month.

The government has introduced “a comprehensive legal regime” to regulate application of the derogation. All trapping sites will be screened for compliance with the legal parameters established in new legislation and “a comprehensive digital data base has been developed for enforcement purposes”. The government also implemented control measures, including “a real-time telephone game reporting system, a system of single-use rings, bag limits, a range of limitations concerning permitted methods of capture, configuration and location of live-capturing stations and other provisions”.

Penalties for offences have been steeply increased and over 60 specially-trained enforcement officers are being deployed to police the derogation measures.

But will these impress the European Commission? No, is the short answer.

Infringement procedures have started and the government’s reply to the claims made by the Commission are now being considered by Brussels. If the situation remains unchanged, the Commission will take the matter to the European Court of Justice for resolution.

Given Malta’s already generally low international reputation on bird hunting, the fact that Brussels has successfully dealt with two other countries over bird trapping and the clear ban under EU law of the specific practice being reintroduced by Malta, the government must decide whether it wants its name to be dragged through the European Court simply to satisfy a ‘hobby’ which the majority of people in Europe regard as uncivilised.

The ban on finch trapping in the Wild Birds Directive is incontrovertible. Moreover, in Malta’s case, one of the conditions stipulated on accession to the EU was precisely that finch trapping was to be phased out by 2009 – as, indeed, had been done by the previous Administration.

No exemptions were stipulated in the treaty and there is no precedent to establish any derogation from this law. If the government persists with permitting bird trapping, Malta’s taxpayers risk paying a very high cost.

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