Once again, Birdlife found itself in a minority at the latest Ornis Committee meeting held on Wednesday.
The meeting backed the Federazzjoni Kaccaturi u Nassaba Konservazzjonisti’s (FKNK) proposal to continue the ‘research programme’, seen as an excuse to continue bird trapping.
Birdlife voted against the continuation of ‘a smokescreen season ‘ which permits the trapping of finches, as well as of song thrushes and golden plovers for ‘research’.
The meeting did not decide whether a finch trapping season should be held this year or not.
During the same meeting, the committee was briefed by the Wild Birds Regulation Unit on the need to address the latest decision by the European Court of Justice. However, Birdlife said details of how this is to be addressed were not tabled.
Birdlife remains adamant that any attempt to reopen the trapping season is a direct challenge to the latest European Court of Justice decision.
In a ruling handed down on 19 September, the European Court of Justice said the finch trapping derogation of seven species of finches was illegal and not in line with the EU Birds Directive.
When Malta joined the EU, it signed an agreement to phase out bird trapping. By 2009, bird trapping had largely been stopped.
But after the change of government in 2013, Malta changed its mind and reopened finch trapping under a derogation.
The EU Commission challenged this and opened an infringement procedure. In 2018, the European Court of Justice declared finch trapping illegal.
Undaunted, the Maltese government then declared the finch trapping season was for research purposes. That, too, was shot down by the Court.
The idea that trappers would catch finches and then release them after checking if they were carrying scientific rings on them was described as a farce and led the Commission to challenge this practice before the EU Court, a procedure that ended with the ruling given last month.
It is as yet unclear what fines the Maltese public will have to pay in light of the recent judgement.
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As Birdlife correctly said, the hunters’ suggestion of ringing finches themselves for scientific research is nothing less than a crafty, but stupid and puerile, smokescreen intended solely as an attempt to somehow bypass the European Court’s ban.
The question that now lends itself is whether the Maltese authorities will be a party to FKNK’s stratagems or will it nip them in the bud once and for all, resting on the support of the Court.
Many will foresee that the first, not the second, will come about!
Personally, I’m expecting some word salad speech from the incumbent minister, that takes no position, while he closes both eyes to let this criminality continue. A government full of crooks is always sympathetic to similar criminals – armed with shotguns, no less.