Malta is inching closer to another court showdown with the European Commission over its insistence on allowing the trapping of finches.

The European Commission said on Wednesday that it has sent the Maltese government a letter of formal notice for “failing to comply with the judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union of 19 September 2024”.

That ECJ ruling had concluded that Malta allowing bird trappers to capture seven species of wild finches was in breach of the EU Birds Directive. The government had applied a derogation to its obligations under that directive, argued that trappers were capturing the birds for scientific research purposes

Weeks after that judgment, the government introduced a new derogation to the Birds Directive to ensure finch trapping could continue unabated.

The European Commission has now described that derogation as “nearly identical to the derogation” rejected by the ECJ.

On Wednesday, the Commission said the new derogation “fails again to provide a precise and adequate statement of reasons” to justify the methods used by Maltese trappers, which it described as a “deviation from standard scientific means of research in the ornithological field”.

The Commission said Malta had also failed to explain the lack of “other satisfactory solutions.”

Malta now has two months to reply to the Commission’s warning letter and address the shortcomings raised.

Should it fail to do so, the Commission will then be empowered to haul Malta back before the European Court of Justice and ask the court to impose financial sanctions on it for having breached the Birds Directive as well as an ECJ ruling.

In a statement, BirdLife Malta president Mark Sultana said finch trapping “has an expiry date, and it is getting closer.

“Would Prime Minister Dr Robert Abela allow Minister Clint Camilleri to keep on bending backwards to please his fellow hunters and trappers or would he stop him to avoid losing funds from the Maltese tax payers?” Sultana asked.