Wild Notebook

Writing in his regular column in The Times (London), Simon Barnes says that Malta's lack of respect for the EU Birds Directive is 'flagrant and unapologetic':

If you have the privilege of joining an organisation that will give you substantial economic benefits in exchange for certain concessions, the thing to do is to take the money and then stick two fingers up at the world. That is the policy adopted by Malta since it joined the European Union. This week, the spring hunting season began on Malta. Again. As it has done every spring since Malta joined the EU in 2004. The Maltese are off on their annual killing binge in direct defiance of the Europe Birds Directive.

The main thrust of the hunt is against turtle doves and quails: birds on migration from Africa to Europe. Migrating birds funnel together over the pinprick of Malta: and so the Maltese let rip at them. These are not Maltese birds: they are birds using Malta as a stepping-stone. These are birds that belong to all Europe. They are our birds.

They are birds that should be brightening our spring. These are the turtle doves whose gentle turr-turring should be adding a mellow voice to the English chorus. But instead, they are being blasted to bits. This is Malta’s fourth consecutive breach of the directive. The defiance is flagrant and unapologetic: and Malta should be kicked out of the EU for its intransigence.

There is legal action by the European Commission against Malta, and it began last year. The case is expected to be heard later this year. But the legal hunt is only one part of it: illegal shooting carries on utterly unpoliced. Any species that appears in front of the gun-barrels is mown down. A purple heron and a pallid harrier were found shot last week before the hunting season even opened.

Birdlife International is doing a hefty job on the political front, but Malta is having its cake and eating it: reaping the EU benefits while carrying on with its tradition of ancient barbarities. The name of Malta stinks across Europe: but does that really matter to the Maltese?