European hunters insist Malta has right to apply trapping derogation

The European Federation of Hunting Associations (FACE) has insisted that the Maltese government’s decision to reintroduce finch trapping is legally justifiable.

In a press statement, the federation said that the European Commission’s decision to refer Malta to the European Courts “disregards the cultural requirements of some EU citizens”.

Quoting the EU Birds Directive, it said that “EU member states shall take the requisite measures to maintain the population of the bird species…at a level which corresponds in particular to ecological, scientific and cultural requirements, while taking account of economic and recreational requirements”.

FACE also took umbrage at the EC for referring to the decline of wild bird species in Europe without taking recent finch population surges into account.

“While it is true that the finch species in question have suffered historical declines, more recent figures show a more positive outlook,” it said. “Not only do the seven species of finches, whereby ‘live capture’ is permitted in Malta, have large breeding populations in Europ, that is in excess of million, but six of them have a ‘secure’ population status.

“Only one of the seven species – the linnet (Carduelis cannabina) – has a ‘declining’ population status, however, it has a breeding population size of between 13,700,000 and 19,100,000 pairs.”

The European Commission last week officially referred Malta to the European Courts of Justice over its refusal to end finch trapping, a practice phased out in 2009 as per Malta’s EU accession treaty but reintroduced under the current Labour government.

The government and hunting federation FKNK insists that Malta can apply a strictly supervised derogation on finch trapping, similar to the one it applies on spring hunting.

However, BirdLife argues that it is logistically impossible to enforce the trapping season and that the trapping of birds for fun does not constitute a judicious application of the derogation.