Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-03-13-Speech-2-361"
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"en.20070313.26.2-361"2
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".
Commissioner, as a Belgian Socialist Member of the European Parliament, taking part in this evening’s debate means a great deal to me, not least because this debate is being held in response to a petition by the Belgian Royal Association for the Protection of Birds, which collected more than 20 000 signatures on the subject of the bird hunt on Malta.
This really is an international problem. In Malta, thousands of migratory birds are shot dead or captured every year. This is particularly bad since Malta is one of the few resting places for migratory birds when they cross the Mediterranean. After all, what is the use of European countries investing money and energy in protective measures in the framework of the Habitat and Bird Directive if those self-same birds are shot dead on their journey in other countries?
To my Maltese opposite numbers, I should like to say that, although it is true that Malta has acquired, until 2008, a number of transitional measures in the accession treaty, these measures only pertain to the capture of birds with a view to breeding them for the purpose of preserving the species. These amount, in other words, to animal protection measures. Under no circumstances does this transitional measure allow for migratory bird hunting in the spring. In its notification, the Commission has made it clear that Malta is, in this case, riding roughshod over the Bird Directive, and that exceptions cannot be made for it.
Moreover, Mr Libicki’s report of June 2006 of the inquiry task force of the Committee on Petitions denounces the way in which migratory birds are hunted down on a large scale, and concludes that the derogation from the Bird Directive, which Malta decided on off its own bat, should lapse. I therefore think that it is of the utmost importance for this House to support the Commission in the procedure and to convince Malta to respect the Birds Directive and therefore not allow migratory bird hunting to take place this spring. This case could, in fact, prove vital should the Birds Directive be found to be being infringed elsewhere in the European Union."@en1
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