Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/571192
maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 16 SEptEmbEr 2015 5 News A ONE NIGHT STAY AT HILTON WITH DINNER AT BLUE ELEPHANT We are nearly at 100,000 LIKES! Like our page and create an online account with wwww.maltatoday.com.mt to be in a chance to win. Executive lounge facilities include: î3ULYDWHFKHFNLQ FKHFNRXW î%UHDNIDVWLQWKHORXQJH î$IWHUQRRQ7HDZLWKFDNHVDQGSDVWULHV î3UHGLQQHUGULQNVLQFOXGLQJFDQDS«VDQGDOFRKROLF drinks î7HDFRIIHHDQGQRQDOFRKROLFGULQNV available throughout the day 7+(5220 $FFRPPRGDWLRQLQRQHRIRXU&RQWHPSRUDU\([HFXWLYH5RRP including breakfast and Executive Lounge facilities Malta risks further action, BirdLife warns Continued froM Page 1 MaltaTo- day's source said the Commission was "unconvinced" that these con- ditions were met. Malta was allowed a transitional arrangement in the Accession Treaty to phase out finch trap- ping, taking into account the time required to establish a captive breeding programme. The tran- sitional arrangement expired in 2008, and after that trapping was banned. But Labour's re-election cam- paign targeted hunters' votes, and although Joseph Muscat made no electoral pledge to reopen bird trapping, the reintroduction of trapping as a sop to the hunting lobby opened up an old environ- mental wound. The reopening of the trapping season allowed the capture of sev- en wild songbirds which migrate over Malta in the autumn. The species are the linnet, the green- finch, the chaffinch, the serin, the goldfinch, the hawfinch and the siskin. During the 2002 negotiations with the EU, the Nationalist ad- ministration presented the EC with the precise total number of trappers who had a licence – but that year, most trappers did not have a licence and no title over land, prompting a scramble to have thousands of trappers regu- larised. The new trapping licences in 2014 should have been reserved to those who had been in possession of a trapping licence in 2004. But this does not appear to have been the case this time round and new trappers were allowed to register. In June 2015, European envi- ronment commissioner Karmenu Vella had warned that "Malta will be taken to court if it doesn't close the trapping season". The EU's Birds Directive bans activities that directly threaten birds, such as deliberate killing or capture, destruction of nests and removal of eggs, and associated activities such as trading in live or dead birds, with a few exceptions. Article 9 of the directive allows member states to derogate from the ban where there is no other satisfactory solution, for instance in the interests of public health and safety or air safety, to prevent serious damage to crops, livestock, forests, fisheries and water, and for the protection of flora and fauna. Maltese trappers trap finches by using clap nets and live decoy birds. The age-old tradition is practised by over 4,000 individu- als. Most of the clap traps are in fact located on public land. BirdLife welcomes decision In a statement issued yesterday, BirdLife Malta welcomed the Eu- ropean Commission's decision to refer Malta to the European Court of Justice over its finch trapping derogation. Conservation Manager Nicho- las Barbara said "BirdLife Malta applauds the Commission for not hesitating to intervene in the breach of EU laws to stop the suf- fering and pointless trapping of wild protected birds that the Mal- tese government has permitted, ignoring several warnings from the EC." He added that BirdLife Malta is calling on the European Commis- sion to apply an 'interim measure' to prevent finch trapping from taking place while a hearing at the ECJ is pending. Barbara added that an interim measure would mean the govern- ment would be forced to suspend finch trapping until the case is heard, preventing the opening of the finch trapping season due to start on 20 October. BirdLife also pointed out that the government continues to al- low trapping of Golden Plover and Song Thrush with a separate dero- gation on which it has received two official warnings so far, meaning a third warning would bring Malta to the ECJ as well. "If a trapping season is to be opened this autumn for Golden Plover and Song Thrush, it is like - ly to be used as a cover for finch trapping. Our data from field surveillance in the 2012 and 2013 trapping seasons, show that 70% of sites were actually used to trap finches," Barbara said. Free, they have the world for a home. In captivity they have a small cage where they cannot even flap their wings properly