In what is being perceived as a government rubber stamp exercise, the Ornis Committee is set to recommend the continuation of spring hunting this year. According to the agenda for tomorrow’s meeting, it is to make its final recommendations to the government on the highly controversial issue.
An indignant BirdLife Malta, which is represented on the Ornis Committee, yesterday made public tomorrow’s agenda, where the sole item up for discussion is the “Decision on the conditions and the periods under which the derogation for hunting and trapping of turtle dove and quail during the spring period is to be recommended to the minister”.
BirdLife accused the government yesterday of using the supposedly independent, consultative Ornis Committee to appease hunters to suit its political agenda by allowing spring hunting for another year.
Ornis Committee chairman Tonio Azzopardi had resigned on 18 February citing personal reasons. Tomorrow’s agenda which calls only for a discussion on the terms on which spring hunting is to be implemented next month, was received from the new chairman Louis Cilia, a civil servant, only on Friday.
According to BirdLife, the circulation of tomorrow’s agenda has been the only action taken by the new chairman since being appointed.
Ornis Committee BirdLife Malta representative Joseph Mangion commented, “A voting within the Ornis Committee to suggest to government the breaching of EU law for a fourth consecutive year would prove that it is nothing more than a mechanism to serve the political agenda. We hope that the members of the Committee will prove that they are truly independent and are not swayed by external agendas.”
Accusing the government of appeasing hunters by intending to use the Ornis Committee as a “scapegoat”, he added, “It is still shocking to see just how shameless this government can be.
“Whether it is necessary to have another derogation is not even up for discussion. The government is using a supposedly independent body to take the heat for such an unacceptable decision.”
In a letter sent to Mr Cilia and the other committee members on Friday, BirdLife Malta insisted tomorrow’s meeting should not be used to recommend the opening of the spring hunting season.
The European Commission, which has already warned Malta over its continued violation of the Birds Directive by allowing spring hunting, is awaiting the government’s reply to an infringement letter issued in June. An infringement letter is the first of three steps of remedial measures available to the EC for directive-violating member States. The third and final recourse is bringing the case before the European Courts of Justice. Such action, however, could take years.
Furthermore, the government’s reply will have to be a justification of its position on spring hunting, backed up by scientific evidence. The government is awaiting the recommendation of the Ornis Committee before submitting its reply to the EC.
But, according to a BirdLife Malta spokesperson contacted yesterday, neither the government nor the Ornis Committee have any such data to back up such a stance and accused the government of employing delaying tactics.
BirdLife warned the Ornis Committee it “cannot recommend the opening of a new spring hunting season in 2007 in the absence of any scientific data that shows there is no alternative to hunting in spring. A fourth breach of EU law is likely to increase fines for non-compliance.”
Mr Mangion commented, “The Ornis Committee is an independent body set up to advise government on best practice. If a body is truly independent, science and law ought to be its main reference.”
Depending on the conclusions of what is expected to be a heated meeting tomorrow, if the recommendations go through, BirdLife intends to make its objections over the “independence” of the Ornis Committee heard at the EC and all other relevant levels.