The government's advisory body on hunting has decided "in principle" to recommend that the government allows a limited spring hunting season under certain conditions.
The Ornis Committee's recommendation is for an April 10-30 season and a bag limit of 22,298 for turtle dove and 10,837 for quail, according to BirdLife.
But the NGO, which was the only member of Ornis to issue a statement following the meeting yesterday evening, feels hard done by. It claimed the meeting was "farcical" and simply an attempt by the Prime Minister to "hide behind Ornis to open the spring hunting season".
BirdLife refused to vote on whether to agree in principle with the recommendation, claiming that such a vote should not even have been taken.
An independent member on the committee also abstained but the vote passed.
The heated four-hour session scrutinised the proposals for sustainable hunting made by the hunters' federation.
BirdLife said the Malta Environment and Planning Authority (Mepa) proposed the three-week April season and the bag limits of 22,298 and 10,837.
Sources said Mepa had originally proposed a bag limit of 67,000 birds over a three-week open season but this was reduced through the discussion. The hunters argued for a five-week season and a bigger bag, the sources said.
However, when contacted, a spokesman for the hunters' federation said that although nobody was "over the moon", it was mostly satisfied with the discussion, regardless of its fast-moving voting process.
Malta last allowed spring hunting for quail and turtle dove over a six-week period in 2007. In 2008 and last year the season was closed pending consideration of the issue by the European Court.
The court ruled that the government was wrong in the way it applied a derogation from the EU's strict rules against spring hunting. However, its rejection of the European Commission's argument that autumn was a satisfactory alternative was interpreted by hunters as leaving the door open for spring hunting to resume.
Birdlife accused the Ornis chairman of "pushing" members to take a series of votes on another season based on FKNK and Mepa proposals, which Birdlife has always maintained were based on flawed calculations.
"To BirdLife's amazement, Mepa produced a proposal for a derogation which was not circulated but verbally communicated during the meeting," a spokesman said.
He pointed out that the Office of the Prime Minister had said it would study the court ruling before deciding whether to open another spring hunting season. But to date, the Ornis Committee had not been given any plan by the OPM.
"Today's Ornis meeting once again showed that decisions are taken at a higher level and Ornis is being used as a smokescreen. We would like to see how the Office of the Prime Minister will justify risking Malta being taken to the ECJ again," the spokesman said.
When asked whether he felt the meeting was satisfactory and conclusive, Ornis chairman Louis Cilia said it was and that the recommendations would be made to the government. It was then up to the government to decide what to do.
He pointed out that the decisions taken during the meeting were meant to be confidential.