Direct orders issued in connection with last year’s hunting and finch trapping season amounted to more than €100,000, according to figures published in the Government Gazette.
The figure does not cover all the expenses relating to concessions given by the government to hunters and trappers.
Half the amount of direct orders published was attributed to the foreign law firm chosen to assist the government in winning the ongoing European court case over the reintroduction of finch trapping.
Global law firm Stibbe was paid €50,000, a figure that excludes fees paid to Maltese law firms advising successive administrations on hunting and trapping legislation. The Attorney General’s office is also involved.
The case concerns the government’s decision to allow the trapping of seven species of wild finches as from 2014.
Jan Bouckaert – a partner at Stibbe’s planning and environmental group in Brussels – had also been appointed by the European Hunting Federation (FACE) to assist Malta’s then-Attorney General, Silvio Camilleri, in the European case against Malta on spring hunting in 2009.
These costs were over and above what taxpayers normally fork out to fund law enforcement around hunting and trapping activities
Last year, hunting also led to another €60,000 in direct orders because the season coincided with the period in which the Valletta Summit on Migration and CHOGM were being held.
Since these two national events created an additional demand on law enforcement authorities, the Environment Ministry awarded a direct order of €15,000 for the provision of local wardens for hunting patrols in the autumn season.
The Animal Rights Parliamentary Secretariat, led by Roderick Galdes, said eight wardens were engaged to help the police in enforcement and surveillance duties. They were given “the necessary briefing and training by the ALE”, the secretariat said. In addition, the Wild Birds Regulation Unit – the department tasked with regulating and monitoring hunting and trapping activities – spent another €45,000 in direct orders on three individuals acting as inspectors.
The WBRU disputed its own ministry’s figures published in the Government Gazette, saying instead that two inspectors were recruited on a full-time basis for six months. One contract was extended by a further three months, the unit said. This again goes against what the ministry published, which stated two contracts had been extended.
These costs were over and above what taxpayers normally fork out to fund law enforcement around hunting and trapping activities. In April last year, this newspaper reported that taxpayers had paid around €750,000 to subsidise the spring hunting season since 2013, according to estimates derived from official figures.
Both spring hunting and finch trapping are prohibited by the EU. Finch trapping was phased out in Malta in 2009, in line with its EU accession treaty.
In 2014, the Labour government reintroduced the trapping of seven species of wild finches – on the assumption that it can justify awarding itself an exemption from EU law in a similar fashion to spring hunting. This lead to action by the European Commission.