Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/824559
maltatoday, TUESDAY, 16 MAY 2017 5 hunters shouldn't be treated in this way," said Muscat. "I obviously can't criticise the courts but I think there needs to be more rational- ity in the way fines are given out." Simon Busuttil criti- cised the Ornis Com- mittee's decision to recommend a finch trapping season in autumn this year, warning that this will weaken Malta's position as it attempts to convince the EU Courts that it should be allowed to remain the practice. "This decision is a clear example of Joseph Muscat once again trying to buy votes," Busuttil said in re- sponse to journalists' questions at a press conference. "Once the Court realizes that Muscat has opened a finch trapping sea- son before it has reached a deci- sion, it will take it as a slight," he said. "Muscat's decision is harming Malta's court case, because how can one defend oneself at court if one is challenging the law? "Muscat doesn't care about hunters and trappers, but he is merely trying to save his own skin." Busuttil added that a PN government would respect the ECJ's decision on finch trapping. The Ornis Committee – the government's consulta- tive body on hunting – last weekend recommended the opening of a finch-trapping season between October and December this year. The recommendation, in the middle of an election campaign, comes as Malta awaits a decision by the Eu- ropean Court of Justice on whether the country should retain the practice. Trapping of all birds is prohibited by EU law and was phased out and even- tually banned in Malta in 2009, in line with its EU ac- cession treaty. However, the Labour government in 2014 reintroduced the trapping of seven species of wild finches – on the reasoning that it can justly derogate from EU law in a similar fashion to spring hunting. However, the European Union's Environment Com- mission – spearheaded by former Labour minister Karmenu Vella – has ar- gued that the traditional Maltese use of clap nets is a non-selective trapping style, and that trapping birds for leisure does not constitute a " judicious" reason to dero- gate. News hunters and trappers Muscat doesn't care about hunters and trappers – Busuttil Former BirdLife director: 'Busuttil had said he was against spring hunting' TIM DIACONO PN leader Simon Busuttil had told BirdLife Malta that he was against spring hunting, a former director of the green NGO has claimed. In a Facebook post, Tolga Temuge – who was BirdLife's executive director between 2006 and 2011 – said that Busuttil had made his feel- ings known during a meeting with BirdLife's then director, Steve Micklewright, ahead of the 2015 spring hunting ref- erendum. "Before the spring hunt- ing referendum, he told the BirdLife director at the time that he was against spring hunting but conservationists did not want the issue to be politicised and asked Busut- til to remain silent," Temuge wrote. "He then went public stating that he would vote in favour of spring hunting. Now he tells his coalition partners that he will not al- low spring hunting if he is elected Prime Minister but again goes public in favour of spring hunting. "Political f lip-f lop at its best." Temuge also accused Bu- suttil of lying in the past as an MEP, when he had insist- ed that Malta's EU Accession Treaty had included a clause allowing Malta to open hunt- ing in spring. "As an MEP at the time, he knew very well that this was not the case at all. But he lied." Addressing a political ac- tivity in Siggiewi on Sunday morning, Busuttil recounted how he had "voted with the hunters" in the 2015 spring hunting referendum because he had "given his word" to them 12 years earlier when Malta joined the European Union. During membership nego- tiations, the Maltese gov- ernment had informed the Commission of its intention to allow spring hunting by applying a derogation under the Birds Directive. Busuttil had come out in favour of spring hunting in the 2015 referendum cam- paign, but the Labour Party cast doubt on his convictions by noting that he had taken a week to declare his intention. The old wounds have now been re-opened, triggered by Busuttil's recent pledge to in- troduce propositional refer- enda, which will allow people to invoke a referendum to in- troduce laws, under the same parameters which forced the abrogative referendum against spring hunting. Hunting lobby FKNK warned that propositional referenda could be used as another tool to eradicate hunting and trapping in Mal- ta and said it was surprised that the PN has come up with that proposal. Green Party Alternattiva Demokratika hit out at Bu- suttil's spring hunting decla- ration, arguing that it betrays his hypocrisy over the envi- ronment and the fact that "he will do anything for votes". The old wounds have now been re-opened, by Busuttil's referendum pledge Tolga Temuge: Simon Busuttil had told BirdLife's then director that he was against spring hunting, but conservationists did not want the issue to be politicised and asked Busuttil to remain silent