Brussels brings Malta again before the European Court of Justice due to a derogation for the trapping of finches
The European Commission referred Malta to the European Court of Justice for authorizing the trapping of finches in another case concerning this issue.
The Commission did not buy the government’s rationale for the derogation to allow the live capture (trapping) of seven species of wild finches under the guise of scientific research. The Brussels executive is arguing that the derogation violates the Birds Directive and Treaty Obligations.
A 2018 ECJ verdict had stopped the trapping of finches in Malta, but government had tried to avoid the sentence by applying a derogation for research in 2020.
At that time, the Commission considered that, despite the stated objective being “research”, several elements indicate that the scheme, in practice, allows a large number of birds to be caught without being reported , contrary to the strict conditions for derogations. established by the Birds Directive.
“Although Malta repealed the incriminated legislation at the beginning of October, it did not remove the Commission’s concerns: the trapping licenses for the 2021 season had already been issued on the basis of the revoked 2020 framework, and new rules were quickly adopted with only minor changes. compared to the previous legal regime,” the Commission had said.
The Court’s action in 2021 was preceded by the reasoned opinion of the Commission which considered Malta’s trapping derogation as “unsatisfactory”.