BirdLife Malta ‘Disappointed And Surprised European Law Was Not Protected By Local Courts’
BirdLife Malta has expressed that it is both “disappointed and surprised that European law on the vulnerable turtle doves was not protected by local courts”.
“Unfortunately the 2022 spring hunting season on the protected European turtle dove (Gamiema) will proceed as planned, and hunting on this species will open this coming Sunday following the refusal by the Court of a request by BirdLife Malta,” BirdLife Malta said in a statement reacting to the news.
“Following this decision, BirdLife Malta is disappointed and also surprised that European law was not protected by the local Courts and that there are no means of having remedy to a breach of the European Directives – in this case, the EU Birds Directive,” it said.
“Despite the unfavourable outcome of our request, we remain committed to keep fighting for what is right. The reasons why our injunction request was revoked shows that our law courts might not be able to protect the EU Directives even if this is their remit,” BirdLife Malta CEO Mark Sultana told Lovin Malta.
“We remain certain that we have the correct arguments with regards to the illegal spring hunting of the vulnerable turtle dove. The next legal actions and processes are in hand,” BirdLife President Darryl Grima and CEO Mark Sultana stated.
“In the meantime, the European Commission now has more responsibility to act fast on this hunting season and we expect to see developments in this regard in the near future,” they said.
In a decision announced this morning, the Court also revoked the warrant of prohibitory injunction which was provisionally accepted earlier this week.
This comes after the warrant for a prohibitory injunction which was filed by BirdLife Malta and was provisionally accepted by the authorities a few days prior, with the court hearing happening yesterday.
The turtle dove, known as Gamiema in Maltese, is listed by the Red List of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as a species that is “Vulnerable to Extinction”.
What do you make of BirdLife Malta’s reaction?
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