Micheal Finn This law permits by means of a derogation from the EU Birds Directive the shooting and killing of number of non huntable species. Zoom In

The Commission asked the Court of Justice to stop unreasoned bird killing in Lombardy

10-12-2009

On 20 November the European Commission called on the European Court of Justice to issue an interim measure against Italy to prevent the hunting of protected bird species in the Lombardy region. The Commission has decided to take this urgent action after Lombardy passed a new legislation which allows the hunting of four protected species until 31 December 2009. Despite a previous decision from the Italian Supreme Court, which declared such derogations illegal, on 16 September Lombardy approved a law on hunting for 2009 – 2010.

This law permits by means of a derogation from the EU Birds Directive the shooting and killing of number of non huntable species such as Eurasian Chaffinch Fringilla coelebs, Brambling Fringilla montifringilla, Meadow Pipit Anthus pratensis, and Eurasian Bullfinch Pyrrhula pyrrhula in relatively high numbers, allowing to shoot  almost 500,000 individual birds for one of the species and ten thousands for the rest of them.

“It is unacceptable that Lombardy twisted the implementation of the Birds Directive" —Claudio Celada, Conservation Director at LIPU (BirdLife in Italy)

Meadow Pipit is also assessed to be in unfavourable conservation status in the EU, and thus according to the interpretation of the Court case law, it should not be allowed to hunt it under derogations.

“It is unacceptable that despite already pending legal action against Italy for problems with hunting regulations, Lombardy twisted the implementation of the Birds Directive and allowed shooting of more non-huntable species including one clearly in unfavorable conservation status in the EU”, commented Claudio Celada, Conservation Director at LIPU (BirdLife in Italy) 

BirdLife Internation and LIPU hope that the Court of Justice will react swiftly and will stop application of this controversial law in Lombardy until the whole court case is resolved hopefully in 2010. 

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