Photo: Aron Tanti
The European Commission said on Wednesday that it has sent the Maltese government a letter of formal notice for failing to comply with a ruling related to the trapping of seven species of finches.
The judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union had been given on 19 September last year.
It had concluded that Malta was in breach of the EU Birds Directive for allowing bird trappers to capture seven species of wild finches. The government had applied a derogation to its obligations under that directive, arguing that trappers were capturing the birds for scientific research purposes.
On 20 October 2024, Malta adopted a new derogation scheme, nearly identical to the derogation rejected by the Court.
The European Commission has now described that derogation as “nearly identical to the derogation” rejected by the ECJ.
The Commission considers that the new derogation fails again to provide a precise and adequate statement of reasons to explain its deviation from standard scientific means of research in the ornithological field, needed to justify the proportionality of the derogation.
The Commission also considers that Malta has failed to explain the lack of other satisfactory solutions.
The Commission is therefore sending a letter of formal notice to Malta, which now has two months to respond and address the shortcomings raised by the Commission.
In the absence of a satisfactory response, the Commission may decide to refer Malta back to the Court of Justice of the European Union, with a request to impose financial sanctions.
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Publish date : 2025-02-12 05:01:00
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