The government yesterday praised a UK junior minister for the stand he took over Malta’s spring hunting practices earlier this week.
Speaking during a debate in a House of Commons committee, Environment Parliamentary Secretary George Eustice last Wednesday insisted that a distinction had to be made between legal hunting and the illegal shooting of protected birds. Neither issue, he said, was unique to Malta.
Called by Sir John Randall, a Conservative backbencher, the half-hour debate was held following intense UK media coverage of spring hunting in Malta.
While raising doubts over Sir John’s approach to the debate, the government spokesman lauded the junior minister’s “understanding” of the local situation.
The intervention was an objective and balanced one
“While Sir Randall’s arguments mainly mirrored those of anti-hunting campaigners, the intervention of Junior Minister for the Environment George Eustice on behalf of the UK government was an objective and balanced one, which indicates that the UK government is well aware of the complexity and multiple dimensions of the situation,” he said.
The government spokesman also shot down the claim that Malta was the only EU member state that allowed spring hunting. He said that several other EU countries, including the UK, allowed shooting of certain bird species during the same period.
This, he said, did not contribute to the reported decline of turtle doves in the UK either.
In reaction to the debate, the head of Malta’s Wild Birds Regulation Unit, Sergei Golovkin, who was present in the hall, said: “There appears to be a dearth of objective and factual information about this issue of hunting outside of Malta.”
Media coverage of spring hunting, he said, often obscured the distinction between legal hunting and the illegal shooting of protected birds. Mr Golovkin said the two-week hunting period was “rigorously controlled” through field enforcement and legal deterrents, dispelling claims that it was an unregulated season.
“Turtle doves and quails migrating over Malta do not migrate to the UK but elsewhere in Europe and are part of populations that are predominantly either stable or increasing. In all, 10 EU member states permit hunting of turtle doves and quails,” Mr Golovkin said, adding that the legality of Malta’s spring hunting derogation had been affirmed following the European Court of Justice ruling on this issue.
During Wednesday’s debate, Sir John called on his government to ask the European Commissioner for the Environment to ensure that the Birds’ Directive was properly enforced in Malta.
The discussion was characterised by calls for the island’s derogation from EU regulations to be removed and for Malta to fall in line with the European Commission’s Wild Birds Directive.
Referring to the signatures collected for a referendum to stop spring hunting, he called for donations to the referendum fund.