Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/855205
8 maltatoday, SUNDAY, 30 JULY 2017 News The Ministry for Health is seeking to recruit an EESSI Technical Administrator – EESSI (Electronic for Exchange of Social Security Information) Connecting Europe Facility 2014-2020. EESSI Technical Administrator Contract • Two year definite contract – 40 hours per week Qualifications and Experience • Be able to communicate in the English Language given that due consideration will also be given to applicants who also have the ability to communicate in the Maltese Language; • In possession of a recognised Master's qualification at MQF Level 7 (subject to a minimum of 60 ECTS/ECVET credits, or equivalent, with regard to programmes commencing as from October 2008) in Information Technology or a comparable professional qualification, plus one (1) year relevant work experience; OR • In possession of a recognised Bachelor's qualification at MQF Level 6 (subject to a minimum of 180 ECTS/ECVET credits, or equivalent, with regard to programmes commencing as from October 2003) in Information Technology or a comparable professional qualification plus three (3) years relevant work experience. Interested persons are to submit their application together with detailed Curriculum Vitae by not later than Friday 11 th August 2017. Applicants who are already in the Malta Public Service must produce a Service and Leave Record Form (GP 47); those applying from outside the Service must produce a Certificate of Conduct issued by the Police or other competent authority not earlier than one (1) month from the date of application and state whether they have ever been in Government Service, giving details. Applications should be addressed to: Resourcing and Employee Relations Directorate, Ministry for Health, Palazzo Castellania, 15, Merchants Street, Valletta VLT 1171. Website: http://health.gov.mt Fax number: +356 22992604 Email address: recruitment.health@gov.mt. Applications can also be submitted through the Online Government Recruitment Portal on http://recruitment.gov.mt by the said closing time and date of this call for applications. More detailed information regarding the above job vacancy can be accessed from the government website http://recruitment.gov.mt and Government Gazette issued on Friday 28 th July 2017. The sole responsibility of this publication lies with the author. The European Union is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained therein. THE law that effectively bans hunting in the spring as well as finch trapping is the Birds Direc- tive, a European law that is upheld by all EU member states, which has been around since 1979. It was a legislative act informed by a concern on the decline of wild bird species migrating across boards, due to urban sprawl, in- tensive agriculture and forestry, and the use of pesticides affect- ing their food supplies. Hunting of migratory species, especially in the Mediterranean, of course, was a main cause of the decline. The reason Malta has contin- ued to allow hunting in spring is because the EU law allows mem- ber states to derogate. Effectively this means giving notice to the European Commission that a hunting season for a specific bird species and with limited bags will be opened anyway, but the law lays down clear grounds on which the government must justify why it allowed hunting in spring. It all boils down to a number of 'tests', whereby certain con- ditions have to be met in order for a derogation to be considered valid. These include the 'alterna- tive' test, the 'proportionality' test, the 'small numbers' test and the test of 'strict supervision', apart from other conditions. A verdict by the European Court of Justice in 2009 that tested Malta's derogation actu- ally left the door ajar for a lim- ited hunting season, because of its observation that autumn was not sufficient as an alternative to spring for the hunting of quail and turtle dove. But even here, conservation- ists like BirdLife Malta insist the Court ruled this way because the data supplied by Malta was flawed to begin with, being based on 'bag counts' provided by the hunters themselves. Every year the hunting season opens, Malta has a difficult balancing act: en- forcing lower bag limits means stricter policing, but Malta has been notorious in keeping its Administrative Law Enforce- ment unit lean on the environ- mental crime beat. And hunters show their dis- pleasure easily: political parties like Labour have been responsive to their demands in a bid to win their support at elections, which is why in 2013, the new admin- istration announced it was ready to reintroduce an outlawed prac- tice. When Malta joined the EU in 2004, a ban on finch trapping was one of the conditions of the ac- cession treaty. The government was allowed to phase out trap- ping for seven species of finches over five years. In 2014 trapping was reintroduced by the Labour government, instantly leading to a legal action by the European Commission. Derogating from the ban means proving there is no al- ternative to the activity, which must be carried out 'judiciously', under superivsion, and only for small numbers of birds. The ECJ's Advocate General, Eleanor Sharpston this week disagreed over the Maltese gov- ernment's contention that a bag limit of 27,500 finches is 'judi- cious'. Firstly, a captive breeding programme that Maltese hunters subscribed to in 2004 was never kicked off by the government. More importantly, Maltese trapping uses clap nets – which employ both a large-scale and non-selective capture of birds. Finches tend to fly in flocks, the Advocate General states, and with 4,000 trapping licences over a season of 73 days, this might "potentially be 'capable of caus- ing the local disappearance of a species'," Sharpston argues. Why are trapping and spring hunting banned? An EU law that Malta has always tried to undermine imposes strict limits On the edge of their feather MaltaToday explains Making sense of the news ? Send us your subjects on dailynews@mediatoday.com.mt PD wants Auditor General probe on Smart City PAUL COCKS THE Democratic Party has called on the Auditor General to inves- tigate why the company that had been granted the rights to develop Smart City, had changed the use of part of the land from commercial to residential, generating a huge increase in the value of the land. The company SmartCity Malta has entered into a promise-of-sale agreement with Ricasoli Proper- ties, the developers of the Shore- line, for land that will be developed into a residential block. But the development is coming before the fulfilment of contractual obliga- tions by Dubai-owned SmartCity Malta to complete the internet vil- lage and generate some 5,000 jobs. Addressing a press conference outside Smart City, PD leader Marlene Farrugia said the party will also be asking the Auditor General to investigate why the government, with its 10% stake in Smart City, had not taken action to stop the ownership of the land changing hands with residential units already being sold on plan. The PD argued that it was not against sustainable development as land needs to be used to the full benefit of all the citizens. "Smart City was born 11 years ago, when the Nationalist govern- ment granted the land and permits for the development of a technolo- gy hub," Farrugia said. "The com- pany was bound to invest some €300 million and create around 5,000 jobs." She noted that Prime Minister Joseph Muscat had bemoaned the fact that the plan for Smart City had stalled. "Now he too has changed his stance because we now know the developer is sell- ing residential units in the Shore- line development," she said. Farrguia said private specula- tion on Smart City was creat- ing unfair competition to local developers. "Good governance calls for transparent and ac- countable processes on Malta's land resource where the interest of the people's coffers should be foremost… we call on the PA not to bully the ERA and ask govern- ment to give a veto to ERA when such issues arise. Malta's schizo- phrenic frenzy in development may proof to be unsustainable and may lead to an economic col- lapse." Marlene Farrugia (centre) called for a level playing field in the allocation of land for development