Hunters asks PM to revoke framework legislation

The Federation for Hunting & Conservation (FKNK) and the St Hubert Hunters (KSU) have sent a joint-letter to Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi and Opposition leader Joseph Muscat, to revoke the legal notice on derogating from the Birds Directive’s ban on spring hunting.

According to the letter, the FKNK says the enabling framework legislation enacted on 9 April 2010 (legal notice 221) should be revoked as it is “superfluous to Birds Directive requirements because a derogation would need to be applied every year anyway. No matter how wide its parameters, any framework legislation is always restricted to pre-set boundaries and condition seven if they fall outside the requirements of the Directive.

“Furthermore, it not only fails to address the real considerations of Article 9 (derogations) of the Birds Directive, but it also further restricts any government from freely applying a derogation based on scientific and technical findings applicable to a specific year but not necessarily to all years.”

The FKNK said the framework legislation reduces the total number of hunting days to a maximum of 9 days, permitting hunting up to 12pm, and banning it on Sundays and public holidays. The original spring hunting period lasted 59 days in March, April and May.

It also restricts the number of special licences drastically by means of a lottery,“an arbitrary reduction totally discriminatory and undemocratic that is required neither by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) nor by the Birds Directive,” the FKNK said.

The FKNK added that the law uses an “absolutely unscientific method” to calculate ‘huntable’bird numbers, ignoring the requirement that this should be the result of a scientific exercise based on the principle of “in the order of 1% mortality rate of the species” as outlined in the Guide to Sustainable Hunting under the Birds Directive, and fails to offer ‘huntable’ bird numbers that constitute a satisfactory alternative solution to the inconsiderable bags recorded in autumn. 

The FKNK said the law goes against the September 2009 judgment of the European Court of Justice for “unnecessarily banning trapping” and that it made no allowance for the different timings in the migration pattern of the two species to be hunted.

“Having witnessed the failure of this framework legislation in April 2010, and having noted the Commission’s criticism of its structure, the FKNK and KSU feel that, in terms of correctly applying a derogation on the basis of scientific and technical information available to it at a specific point in time, the government could do that better if it were not shackled by this piece of legislation.

“The organizations expect no more and no less than what is permitted by the Birds Directive and as guaranteed in writing by Malta’s previous Prime Minister, tacitly accepted by the Commission and published as public information by the Malta EU Information Centre on the eve of the EU referendum.”