Brussels "does not intend" to tell government whether it should open the spring hunting season or not as "at the end of the day, the decision would have to be taken solely by the Maltese authorities", a European Commission official has told The Times.
He confirmed that talks between the two sides were taking place but they were only "consultative discussions".
Commission sources said Malta, which had been dragged to the European Court of Justice over spring hunting, was trying to find an informal compromise with Brussels before giving any go-ahead for the next season to open. The intention was "to avoid future complications".
But the sources said that "if Malta decides to apply the derogation it will have until November 2011 to justify it through a detailed report". Only then would the Commission be prepared to take a position: "Our role would be to monitor what really happens on the ground and draw our own conclusions."
Hunters are anxious about the fate of this year's spring hunting season since the Prime Minister has not yet acted on a recommendation by the Ornis Committee to open a limited one.
Speaking on TVM programme Dissett on March 23, Lawrence Gonzi said he wanted to make sure Malta would not end up once again being taken to the ECJ for opening the spring hunting season and he was trying to achieve this "in agreement with the EU".
However, Hunters' Federation Secretary Lino Farrugia yesterday insisted Dr Gonzi was only "playing with words".
"The Commission will never give a formal and official reply to whether the Ornis proposal for a limited spring hunting season will breach the Birds Directive. It is the government that has to apply the derogation and then justify it later. If the Commission is satisfied with the justification no legal proceedings will be taken against Malta," Mr Farrugia said, calling on the Prime Minister not to delay the opening of the season any further.
The hunters are in agreement with BirdLife Malta here, which has been insisting all the way that the decision on the future of spring hunting is the government's alone to make. In fact, the conservation group has accused the Prime Minister of trying to pass the buck to the Commission by arguing that it is trying to reach an agreement before a decision is taken.
The ECJ had ruled against Malta in a case over spring hunting brought by Brussels but it conceded that the autumn season, in principle, did not really offer an alternative to spring. The government has interpreted this as an opportunity to explore "very limited hunting, under strict controls".
Replying to a question tabled by Finnish MEP Sari Essayah, EU Environment Commissioner Janez Poticnik pointed out that the ECJ ruling did not exclude the future possibility of opening a limited and strictly supervised spring hunting season in Malta, provided that it respected all the relevant conditions of the law.
However, he also said that the Commission was monitoring the situation closely. "If Malta adopted a derogation permitting spring hunting which does not comply with the requirements of the directive and the court ruling, the Commission would take the next appropriate legal steps..."
Should the government face a second round of court proceedings, Malta might end up having to pay fines. This would be the next step in the EU legal process once the first case instituted by the Commission in 2007 had ruled that the Birds Directive was breached when Malta allowed spring hunting for three consecutive years after 2004.
The Ornis Committee's recommendation is that hunting should be allowed this spring from April 10 to 30 on condition that only 22,298 turtle doves and 10,837 quails are shot.
Brussels sources said that following the Ornis announcement, the Commission was being put under intense pressure, particularly from some MEPs and the anti-hunting lobby groups, such as BirdLife International.