The European Court of Justice is next week expected to start hearing the case against Malta over spring hunting.
Nationalist Party MEP Simon Busuttil said the government was taking the case seriously and had its best team of legal experts to make Malta's case when the hearings starts on Thursday.
Dr Busuttil was speaking during a meeting with the federation for hunting and conservation (FKNK).
The case against Malta, which the European Commission filed in February 2008, followed a series of EU warnings over the hunting of quails and turtle doves.
According to the Commission, spring hunting of these migratory birds takes place during their return from Africa to breeding grounds in Europe before they would have had a chance to reproduce. It argues that such practice is in breach of the Birds Directive.
The Commission last year also applied for interim measures covering 2008 and 2009 to ensure spring hunting does not take place before the court case is decided.
During Thursday's session, the legal teams of the European Commission and Malta will argue their case in an open ECJ sitting and may also be requested to answer questions by the presiding judge.
The sitting follows the submission of written legal arguments by both Malta and the Commission.
A decision may take weeks or even months.
FKNK general secretary Lino Farrugia told the MEP hopefuls at the meeting that the federation wanted the government to honour the official commitments made prior to EU membership.
He referred specifically to a letter sent to hunters by then Prime Minister Eddie Fenech Adami and to leaflets issued by the Malta-EU Information Centre, which at the time was headed by Dr Busuttil.
Mr Farrugia said FKNK did not agree with the government's position in that the case only dealt with spring hunting between 2004 and 2007. He said the court could not keep Malta from applying the derogation it attained from the EU in the future.
Dr Busuttil said that the hotly-contested spring hunting issue only surfaced once at EU level when, during a plenary session, MEPs were asked to vote on a resolution against Malta. On that occasion, the PN MEPs voted against and the three Labour MEPs abstained.
The resolution passed with 300 votes in favour and 253 against.