EU's top court clips wings on Malta finch trapping

(CN) — On Thursday, the European Union’s top court ruled that Malta’s law allowing the live capture of finches — a cultural tradition dating back centuries — violates the EU’s directive to protect birds across the continent.

“The finches project does not establish a genuine research purpose and hence cannot be considered as being justified,” justices from the Luxembourg-based European Court of Justice wrote.

While Malta maintained that its scheme was for research purposes, the European Commission — the EU body tasked with ensuring member states’ laws are in line with the bloc’s laws — argued the country was wrongly relying on exceptions to EU law. Trapping is admissible when there’s no other solution to protect public health, livestock, crops or for teaching and research.

In Thursday’s ruling, which is final, the justices agreed with the commission. If Malta breaches the terms of the judgment terms, it will risk financial penalties.

In Malta, finch trapping is a cultural tradition. People cast wide nets over the ground to catch finches — particularly greenfinches, siskins or hawfinches — to keep them as songbirds or sell them in pet markets. Trappers often set decoys to attract the birds.

Environmental watchdogs say Malta is maintaining business as usual. The practice of trapping and reselling finches reportedly remains widespread.

“We’re especially concerned because the Malta government is using science here as a kind of Trojan horse to bypass the Birds Directive,” Axel Hirschfeld, a biologist and officer at the Committee Against Bird Slaughter, told Courthouse News.

“It may be a tradition in Malta, but traditions can do great harm in nature,” Hirschfeld said. “That’s why, in a certain point of time, they should be forbidden.”

Malta’s government said in a statement it remains “resolute in defending the lawful practices of hunters and trappers.”

Several pro-finching organizations did not respond to Courthouse News’ requests for comment on the ruling.

One such group wrote on its Facebook page Thursday: “The Conservation Hunters Trappers Federation is pleased to note and thank the Maltese Government, in particular the Honorable Minister Clint Camilleri, for their determination and commitment to continue to defend the legal practices of hunters and trappers in order to appropriately address their concerns.”

Camilleri, who is responsible for the Wild Birds Regulation Unit as minister of Gozo and Planning, attended the delivery of the ruling.

Thursday’s ruling is the latest in a battle that has been going on for years.

When it joined the EU in 2004, Malta became obliged to abide by the EU’s Birds Directive, which falls under the bloc’s biodiversity policy. The initiative requires EU countries to preserve wild bird species and their habitats; capturing or killing the birds, damaging nests and selling wild birds all violate the directive.

Though Malta phased out finch trapping in the immediate years after it joined the EU — and fully banned the practice in 2009 — the nation launched a recreational regime in 2014 as an exception, or derogation, which allowed for the trapping of seven species of finches.

This catalyzed a back-and-forth legal battle between the EU and Malta that has spanned the past decade.

In 2018, the EU ruled that Malta’s regime didn’t meet the Birds Directive requirements, so Malta repealed the laws.

In 2020, Malta launched the Finches Project under Framework Regulations, which fell under the same conditions as its previous regime, but with one key difference. Rather than falling under the recreational category, this was presented as part of the derogation for research purposes.

The government said it was investigating where migratory finches come from when they land in Malta in the fall.

The commission again said Malta was violating bird protection laws. In May of this year, Tamara Capeta, the advocate general of the Court of Justice of the European Union, gave her formal opinion on the case.

“The most important and novel question raised by this case concerns the first claim — is Malta’s Finches Project a genuine research project, or is it only a cover, as claimed by the commission, for perpetuating the activities which breach the Birds Directive?” Capeta said. “My conclusion is that the research project at issue, both in its design and its implementation, has flaws which should direct the court to conclude that it is not, indeed, a genuine research project.”

The Ministry for Justice and the Ministry for the Environment did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

“I’m absolutely convinced that the Malta government knows this has absolutely nothing to do with science,” Hirschfeld said. “Science is being used to enable the trappers to continue to fill the aviaries with protected birds and sell them on the black market.”

The Committee Against Bird Slaughter watches the designated research project sites. Besides saying that there is no strict supervision of the sites — one of the conditions of the directive — the organization says that there’s trapping happening at the locations themselves.

“I can tell you that the very same sites which are registered for this research project are being used for massive illegal trapping,” Hirschfeld said. “We know that because we are monitoring these sites all year round.

“Our reports have led to the confiscation of thousands of finches which have been trapped at the same sites, and by the same individuals who have been registered for finch trapping,” he said.

BirdLife Malta, another organization working to stop finch trapping, released similar findings in the spring. Their “conservative” estimate was that at least 51,400 finches were taken into captivity instead of being released, which was one of the conditions of the research program.

Although the ruling should prohibit trapping in the future, Hirschfeld worries that people will still operate under the radar.

“I am 100% sure that hundreds, probably thousands of trappers will go out and try to trap finches,” Hirschfeld said.

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