By Raphael Vassallo

Environment Minister George Pullicino has said he is waiting for the Ornis Committee’s recommendations before taking the uncomfortable decision on whether to open the spring hunting season for 2008 – despite the fact that infringement proceedings against Malta in the European Court of Justice will be the subject of an Environment Commission meeting to be held on January 30.
“The law establishes that the Ornis Committee makes its recommendations to government, and government decides after due consideration,” the minister said yesterday.
“Before the government takes any position on the issue, the recommendations by Ornis still have to be made.”
The committee comprises representatives of both the hunters’ lobby FKNK and conservationists BirdLife.
Having already violated EU law for a fourth consecutive year by allowing hunting in spring in 2007, the government was last year accused of using the Ornis committee as a smokescreen.
Pullicino is not the only one to play a waiting game on this contentious issue, which in March 2007 resulted in an unruly and occasionally violent protest by hunters in Valletta.
Ornis Committee chairman Louis Cilia yesterday said he, too, is waiting for members to finally agree on a date for their next meeting.
“So far our members haven’t agreed on a date, but I expect the meeting will take place by the end of the month or the beginning of the next. No agenda has been set. So I can’t tell you if we will be discussing the opening of this year’s spring hunting season or not.”
BirdLife said it’s waiting for government to publish the text of its response to the European Commission’s reasoned opinion. Tolga Temuge, Birdlife’s executive director, said he believes the government has every intention of opening the spring hunting season again this year.
“This much was evident in the Commission’s reaction to the government’s response to its reasoned opinion last week,” Temuge said. “Had government informed the Commission it intended not to open the spring hunting season this year, the EC’s response would surely have been different. Judging by the fact that the EC has not lifted its infringement procedures, it is clear they did not receive the response they were hoping for.”
BirdLife is expected to warn Ornis it cannot recommend the opening of a new spring hunting season in the absence of scientific data showing that there is no alternative to hunting in spring.
Spring hunting is banned by European law, but Malta argues that government had secured a special derogation on the hunting of turtle dove and quail in spring during negotiations. However, the EU claims that all it conceded at negotiation stage was an observation that Malta, like every other member state, is free to apply for a derogation under article 9. However, government has never formally applied for any derogation on spring hunting since 2003.
Commission sources yesterday confirmed a meeting has now been scheduled for 30 January, to discuss forthcoming infringement procedures against individual member states on a wide variety of environmental issues.
The same sources claimed that, unless the government reneges on its apparent decision to open the spring hunting season for 2008 before that date, the agenda is certain to include Malta and its continued insistence on breaching the Birds Directive.
George Pullicino has already hinted that his government may play for time, banking on the fact that ECJ cases often take years to reach a decision. But BirdLife Malta cites a precedent in Poland last year, whereby fines for an environmental infringement were imposed before any verdict was reached.
“If the government thinks the case will drag on for years, it is very much mistaken,” Temuge warned yesterday. “As we saw in Poland last year, the European Court can also take interim measures if it deems the breach of law to be serious enough. These measures can come into force immediately.”

rvassallo@mediatoday.com.mt