Following the re-opening of a finch trapping season by the Maltese Government, "in defiance of the 2018 judgement by the European Court of Justice (ECJ)," 24 BirdLife partners from European Union (EU) Member States have endorsed a letter calling on the EU Commission to act against the ongoing finch trapping derogation in Malta.

The letter, signed by BirdLife International CEO Patricia Zurita, BirdLife Europe Senior Head of Policy Ariel Brunner and BirdLife Malta CEO Mark Sultana, has been sent to Virginijus Sinkevičius, the European Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries.

In this letter, the BirdLife Partnership is requesting the European Commission to act quickly and directly against Malta on the ongoing finch trapping derogation, "which is setting a precedent and sending the message that countries may get away with allowing the illegal killing of Europe's wild birds under the excuse of scientific research."

The Commission is being urged to intervene on the current situation in Malta to re-establish the rule of law when it comes to bird protection in the Maltese Islands, BirdLife Malta said. "It explains how, with the re-opening of a trapping season, the Government in Malta is not only defying the ECJ ruling but also Malta's EU Accession Treaty and in order to try and get away with it, Malta is this time applying a derogation under the EU Birds Directive for scientific research purposes."

The letter continues that the government's rationale of allowing trappers to trap without any limits, as long as they release all the birds they catch, "is seriously flawed, leaves much to be desired and expects everyone to believe, including the European Commission, that all the birds trapped are being released. "

BirdLife Malta CEO Mark Sultana said: "It is also very clear that this supposedly 'scientific' study is not really aimed to help the conservation of these protected birds, but constitutes only a massive effort to try to increase the reference population to be able to justify more finch trapping derogations in the future. This is even actually stated in the Framework Law enacted a few days before the start of this autumn trapping season. Our letter aims to move the European Commission to act immediately."

"A derogation allowing the trapping of finches can never be justified, given that the ECJ verdict is clear and unequivocal that Malta has never been interested in finding any other alternative to the practice of trapping wild finches, which remain protected species at EU level. To make matters worse, the finch trapping derogation is being applied in synch with another derogation allowing the trapping of Golden Plover and Song Thrush, by the same trappers at the same sites. Never before has there been such a blurred line between the killing of wild birds and research being tested before the European Commission."

Mark Sultana added: "We believe the Commission will have very few options apart from stopping Malta from continuing with this 'creative' way of abusing the EU Bird Directive. This has alarmed many across Europe. The massive support we are finding from our BirdLife partners is overwhelming and puts more weight on our calls directed towards the European Commission."

"Together with the letter, the European Commissioner for Environment has also been sent a dossier with all the arguments and facts that demonstrate this abuse of the Birds Directive. The report, which calls for the immediate suspension of the derogations, was already sent to the EC's Directorate-General for the Environment at the start of this year's trapping season."