Birdlife Malta has pushed the prime minister to respect a European court’s decision that found Malta’s acceptance of finch trapping to be illegal.

In an open letter to Robert Abela, the bird conservation NGO also drew his attention to the reputational damage – as well as legal fees - Malta had incurred by defending its position over the years.

Finch trapping is illegal under EU law, but Malta has for years found ways of allowing it.

In 2018 the ECJ sought to definitively block the practice, but two years later Malta reintroduced it by claiming that trappers were taking part in a catch-and-release scientific research project.

The justification left the European Commission unimpressed, and it subsequently sued the government before the European Court of Justice.

This week, the ECJ concluded that Malta had broken EU law without justification.

It was the second time that the ECJ has ruled that Malta was unjustifiably allowing finch trap

Minister Clint Camilleri – who is himself a trapper – argued this week that the ECJ ruling had only found “minor breaches” in the way Malta implemented the research project.

The ruling had only found “minor breaches”, he argued.

On Saturday, Birdlife accused Camilleri of “blatantly twisting the facts” of the ECJ ruling. The minister, the NGO noted, had already tried to fool people by claiming the finch trapping exception was a genuine research project, and had also tried to derail infringement proceedings before the ECJ.

“Rather than assume the political responsibility as would be the case from an Western European Minister, Minsiter Camilleri wants to cry victory,” the NGO said, as it accused the minister of offending the public’s intelligence.

It was not true that the ECJ had only found one fault in Malta’s derogation, it said.

Citing from the ECJ ruling, it noted that the court had concluded that Malta had failed to prove why it needed the derogation – the very basis for applying one – and had not bothered to examine other pleas raised, given that the first breach was enough in and of itself to rule against Malta.

Birdlife said the ECJ ruling vindicated its years-long position against the finch trapping derogation, and told Abela it was now down to him to ensure the court’s verdict was respected.

While he may have fully trusted Camilleri to design and implement the derogation, the prime minister now had to take over, Birdlife said.

“It is high time to call a spade a spade and declare that Malta cannot keep on toying around with farcical ploys to try and fool the European Commission or the European Court of Justice with similar derogations,” Birdlife said.

“The finch trapping derogation has failed twice, and the latest one, disguised as scientific research, fooled no one from day one.”

“Malta now needs to make sure that we don’t harm our reputation even further, since breaching such a clear sentence, would also question our country’s position towards the rule of law. We believe this is a serious matter that needs a decisive decision of high level leadership.”

Birdlife also called for the government-appointed Ornis committee – which is responsible for advising the government on hunting and trapping-related issues – to be reformed to be truly scientific in its approach.

“Malta needs to have a science-based Ornis Committee to give science-based advice and not politically motivated ones,” Birdlife said. “Nothing stops the Minister from acquiring political advice from his people of trust, but the Ornis committee should not be anything but scientific.”