Decisions taken on spring hunting earlier this week show that the government tried to kill two birds with one stone, pun intended of course.

On the one hand, spring hunting is to continue – albeit during a shorter span of time – even though Malta risks the imposition of heavy penalties by the European Commission. The EC has already taken a first step by issuing a letter of formal notice after the government failed to justify its decision to allow spring hunting every year since Malta became an EU member.

The Ornis committee has recommended to the government a new set of dates for spring hunting, from 1 April to 10 May for quail and from 10 April to 20 May for turtledoves. The committee’s recommendations are still to be approved by the government, and there is nothing to indicate that the government will withhold its approval.

The new season, according to Rural Affairs and Environment Minister George Pullicino, is “significantly shorter” than that of 25 March-22 May, as the dates were until last year.

On the other hand, the government has decided to heftily increase the sanctions to be imposed on those hunters who do not abide by the regulations. Fines have been doubled and those hunting illegally could also face a prison term and have their hunting and firearms licences suspended.

As Mr Pullicino put it, “the government is committed to defend legal hunting while also cracking down on illegal hunting”.

The measures that have been announced were obviously intended to find a compromise between calls for the elimination of spring hunting, made by environmentalist groups, and the hunters’ pressure to continue practising their hobby during spring.

Hunting has always been a controversial issue on these islands and, now that the election is fast approaching, the government is seemingly being careful in the way that it deals with the matter.

It does not want to irk hunters, who in their thousands and in their passion for their pastime could influence the outcome of the polls. It does not want to annoy the environmentalists, who may be smaller in number but who enjoy the backing of many others who might not be active in lobbying, but who silently support efforts to control hunting better.

What was significant in what Mr Pullicino said last Monday were his comments with regard to the lengthy procedures that need to be taken within the European Commission structures for any remedial action that Malta might be ordered to make. This implies that the government either feels that it is in the wrong, by allowing spring hunting, or is not sure that it is in the right.

Punitive fines, Mr Pullicino said, would result only if Malta fails to adhere to a decision taken by the European Courts of Justice, the last of three steps in infringement proceedings. Until now, the EC has only taken a first step.

In this respect, BirdLife Malta president Joseph Mangion is correct to say that the measures that have been decided are nothing more than “the employment of delaying tactics”, since the issue could take years to be resolved at European level.

In real terms, this means that a temporary decision has been taken by the government, allowing the spring hunting season to go ahead this year before possibly taking a different course of action next year, maybe soon after the general election would have been held.

During the press conference, Mr Pullicino commented that by allowing spring hunting this year the government was not shifting the goalposts, but merely fulfilling its political mandate. It would be interesting to know, now that the election is round the corner, what both the Nationalist Party and the Malta Labour Party are planning to do in the next legislature when one of them is in government.

The environmentalists have already expressed their disappointment that spring hunting is to continue. The hunters will still have their hobby, but know that if they break the rules a heavy punishment awaits them.

It is clear that the government tried to please both sides. In the end, it managed to please neither.