Mark Sultana, CEO of BirdLife Malta (The Sunday Times of Malta, December 3), says that I “have it all wrong”, in his response to part of my letter of November 26 entitled ‘Is the EU picking on Malta, yet again?’

Mr Sultana is very confused. He quoted me as saying that France was allowing the trapping of ortolan bunting (small song birds) as a legal practice and through a derogation. In fact, I had written as follows: “In France, the live-capturing (trapping) of ortolan buntings, although illegal, since the practice is undertaken without the application of a derogation…”.

Mr Sultana also states that “…countries like Malta have weaker enforcement”. The facts show that possibly we have the harshest and highest penalties and fines anywhere in Europe, and definitely the strictest enforcement, as amply demonstrated by the Inter-Governmental Task Force on Illegal Killing, Taking and Trade of Migratory Birds in the Mediterranean (MIKT), which has been created under the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals. Birdlife is party to this task force.

Mr Sultana’s ultimate confusion is when he writes: “In this case, once the moratorium on turtle dove spring hunting was announced, the European Commission had stopped looking at the option of infringements proceedings against Malta.”

The moratorium on turtle dove spring hunting was announced in May 2016, while the European Commission had withdrawn its relative infringement proceedings in May 2015 (a year earlier), barely a month following the respective abrogative referendum result, when Mr Sultana, a main spokesperson for the abolition of spring hunting, was defeated.