Reference is made to the letter entitled ‘Is the EU picking on Malta, yet again?’ by Lino Farrugia, CEO of the Federation for Hunting and Conservation (FKNK), (The Sunday Times of Malta, November 26.)

Mr Farrugia has it all wrong. France was not allowing the trapping of Ortolan Bunting as a legal practice and through a derogation. In fact the EU started infringement proceedings against France for a clear lack of enforcement, something which is a first for the EU.

Funnily enough it would be France who might want to use Mr Farrugia’s comment with a twist stating that the EU is picking on France over a lack of enforcement when countries like Malta have weaker enforcement!

Now that France is enforcing the law the EU dropped the infringement proceedings against them. This is very similar to what the EU opted to do with Malta’s Turtle Dove spring hunting season. In this case once the moratorium on Turtle Dove spring hunting was announced, the European Commission had stopped looking at the option of infringement proceedings against Malta.

So one could argue that the EU has been rather lenient with Malta in many issues including lack of enforcement, spring hunting and trapping of Golden Plover and Song Thrush.