BirdLife Malta has urged the prime minister to revisit a proposed change to the law on bird-rining that, it said, could jeopardise scientific bird studies.

"BirdLife Malta sincerely believes that PM Robert Abela is being misled and misinformed about the latest proposals on bird ringing," it said.

The change, which is being put on the agenda of an ORNIS Committee meeting today by the Federation for Hunting and Conservation (FKNK), suggests that there should be other bird ringing schemes in Malta that are not affiliated to the European EURING ringing scheme, BirdLife said. 

EURING is a European-wide network that recognizes highly scientific bird ringing schemes to make sure that scientific bird studies, especially those related to bird migration, are well networked and of a high level.

In Malta the law stipulates that licensed ringing schemes can only be those affiliated to EURING, as is the case with the BirdLife Malta Ringing Scheme set up in the mid-1960s.

"The Prime Minister should appreciate that by creating other schemes, science will not benefit but this will create possible abuse to birds themselves, especially by third parties who have every intention to promote fake science," the NGO said.

It urged Robert Abela to suspend such amendments to the law until there is a thorough discussion with all stakeholders involved 'to avoid putting Malta into yet another embarrassing situation with the European Commission in regard to transparency.'