The European Committee on Petitions has decided to conclude its consideration of the Federation for Hunting & Conservation – Malta (FKNK) Petition against the decision of the European Commission to initiate infringement proceedings against Malta over the spring-hunting issue, and has closed the relative dossier.
The FKNK said the committee based its decision on the reply it had received from the European Commission regarding the case. On the basis of the ruling of the Court of Justice of the European Communities of 10th September 2009, the Commission expressed itself as follows on the 22nd April 2010:
“The judgement, however, did not exclude the future possibility of opening a limited and strictly supervised spring hunting season in Malta, provided that all the relative conditions under Article 9(1)(c) were met.”
The FKNK’s petition which was admitted by the European Committee on Petitions on 24th September 2008, was supported by over 31,000 signatures and was collected in the Maltese Islands between the 1st of March 2008 and the 10th of April 2008.
No electronic signatures were requested nor collected and all signatures were collected manually.
5% of the signatures were collected from other EU Member States citizens, otherwise the rest are from Maltese citizens which account for over 10% of the adult Maltese population, the FKNK said.
Representatives of Hunters’ associations in Spain, Portugal, Serbia, Check Republic, Ireland, France, Italy, Greece, Austria, Slovakia, Cyprus, Belgium and Latvia also signed.
The petition read:
Malta signed the Treaty of Accession with the European Union (EU) on 16th April 2003, and became an EU Member State on the 1st of May 2004.
EU Common Positions were adopted by the then EU Member States signifying their agreement to seventy-seven special arrangements affecting various sectors of the Maltese Society. One of the special arrangements was about the traditional socio-cultural passion of spring hunting as practiced within the framework of EU Directive 79/409/EEC.
Today, the EU Commission wants to go back on this agreement and is taking Malta to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) over spring hunting with evidence that is based on gross misinterpretation of material facts.
This could see the eventual crumble of the other seventy-six special arrangements affecting the other sectors.
This would also send a clear message to the Maltese population that EU membership was based on a hoax.
This petition is appealing to the EU Commission to withdraw its attempt to nullify this special arrangement.