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5 gozotoday | FRIDAY • 20 SEPTEMBER 2024 NEWS CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 "There is a good basis on what to work upon… when the Maltese government has a cause it believes in, it can achieve good results," he said in a long-winded video mes- sage he posted to Facebook, in which he claimed Malta had "won cardinal points" in its legal argumentation in Luxem- bourg. Camilleri appeared upbeat, despite the ECJ's definitive declaration that Malta's bird trapping seasons were illegal, that Malta had presented a "clear and precise" legal frame- work for its scientific research derogation. It was unclear why this was a positive in a court case that upheld the Commission's legal challenge to Malta's second at- tempt at using the limited der- ogations available under Arti- cle 9 of the Birds Directive. "So one asks why this case was not decided in Malta's favour: it is all down to a technicality, because Malta did not explain why there was no satisfactory alternative, rather than resting solely on a government min- ister's declaration… the Mal- tese government won points of principles that will be a basis for the future." But Camilleri, fluctuating from beaming triumphalism to furrowed brows, ultimately said that Malta will be adher- ing to the ECJ decision. "Malta justified its traditional methods well, in a bid to allow trappers to be part of this citi- zen-science effort… this point was not rebutted by the Com- mission," Camilleri said. "We need to continue work- ing, to ensure that what is ours by right is safeguarded… the ECJ accepted most of Malta's points, except for this techni- cality." EU Court ruling The European Court of Jus- tice ruled that Malta's dero- gation from the ban on bird trapping is illegal, yet anoth- er confirmation of the island member-state's continued dis- regard of the Bird Directive. The ECJ ruled on the case filed by the European Com- mision, which said Malta was not fulfilling the conditions required to derogate from the ban on trapping, when it claimed it was for scientific re- search purposes. "By adopting a derogation allowing to capture live sev- en species of wild finches, the Republic of Malta has failed to fulfil its obligations under Di- rective 2009/147 on the con- servation of wild birds," the ECJ said. The EU's Birds Directive is law that is aimed at preserving all bird species' diversity, by forbidding the deliberate kill- ing or capture of birds, and the use of large-scale or non-selec- tive methods such as clap-nets. The law still allows a deroga- tion from this ban, under strict conditions. When Malta joined the EU in 2004, it was allowed a grad- ual phase-out of bird trapping since this is banned under the directive. After successful- ly banning finch trapping in 2009, the new Labour admin- istration in 2014 once again started applying a recreational derogation for the seven finch species. But in 2018, the EU Court ruled that Malta had failed to meet this derogation's condi- tions, and consequently Malta repealed it. In 2020, Malta adopted a new derogation, this time for purposes of research. The Eu- ropean Commission accused it of orchestrating a cover-up to enable the previous recre- ational regime, and initiated infringement actions again. Malta claimed that its research project served to answer the question: "where do finches that migrate over Malta during post-nuptial (autumn) migra- tion come from?". In its decision, the ECJ de- creed that Malta's Finches Project did not establish a gen- uine research purpose and was therefore unjustified. It added that Malta's deroga- tion on the basis of scientific research was "not based on sci- entific methods, gives rise to defective application, pursues an objective unconnected with wild finches conservation and, in any event, is inappropriate for attaining the declared ob- jective." Malta had also failed to state reasons for the absence of any other satisfactory solution, and, could not demonstrate the absence of any other satis- factory solution. "The fact that the Repub- lic of Malta has amended its legal framework and intro- duced new procedures, new bodies and new participants in the research derogation, and strengthened the enforcement mechanisms, is not such as to demonstrate that the regulato- ry framework adopted in 2021 constitutes a new regime in relation to the subject-matter of the present action," the ECJ said. BirdLife reaction BirdLife Malta said the ruling sent a clear message that any such decisions onmature had to be based on solid science. "BirdLife Malta always insist- ed that the Ornis Committee should be more science-based," head of conservation Nicholas Barbara said of the consulta- tive committee that includes both hunting lobby FKNK and BirdLife, and government ex- pert, which advises the gov- ernment on the opening of the hunting and trapping seasons. "Members on this committee need to be able to understand science to be able to give the right advice to government. BirdLife Malta was the only member on this committee that had voted against this der- ogation as it was clear from day one that this was nothing but a smokescreen and had no sci- entific or conservation value. The European Court of Justice today vindicated our reasoning and advice," Barbara said. BirdLife CEO Mark Sultana said that following the ECJ decision, the Maltese govern- ment could only declare the end of finch trapping once and for all. "Birdlife had been giving the government the right advice all along, includ- ing during Ornis Committee meetings. It is a pity that we were not listened to, and that it had to end up in court. Now the Government has no choice but to listen and obey the EU Court sentence." Other infringement proceedings Malta is still facing other in- fringement proceedings from the European Commission on spring hunting, as well as on the trapping of song thrush and golden plover. The Birds Directive is a law based on the principal prem- ise that many species of wild birds are threatened, mainly attributable to habitat loss, un- sustainable hunting, and urban sprawl. The law therefore bans the intentional killing or capture of birds by any method, or keeping of captive birds of spe- cies that may not be hunted or captured. The use of clap-nets to trap birds is amongst the forbidden means and methods of capture indicated by the Birds Direc- tive. Malta bird trapping for 'scientific research' is illegal, EU Court rules "Malta justified its traditional methods well, in a bid to allow trappers to be part of this citizen- science effort… this point was not rebutted by the Commission." - Clint Camilleri

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