Malta/EU Information Centre

The following text will be sent as email/letter/telefax as appropriate from Proact and the Eurobirders. Those registered with the PROACT team, or who inform me separately, will have their names and country appended to the letter.

To join the PROACT team click on the arctic tern below.

For those wishing just to support the MALTA campaign with their signature send a mail to:

For individualist hardliners I have included addresses and numbers below. Cut, paste and send ..... but please send a copy to project-malta@proactnoworg

MAIL TO EU DELEGATION TO MALTA

Head of the Delegation of the European Union to Malta
Villa "The Vines"
51 Ta'Xbiex Sea Front
Ta'Xbiex MSD 11
Malta



Dear Head of Delegation,

As mainly European citizens, but also others who care about the natural resources of the continent and its place in the global environment, we address you as Head of the European Delegation to Malta, a candidate for membership of the EU.

You will know from your own annual reports that Malta has very considerable deficits in the field of environmental legislation; and is party to the Bern Convention only after making grave reservations on hunting. Additionally, from press reports and communications from nature organisations, it is clear that what little protective legislation for birds and their habitats exists is flaunted twice a year under the eyes of the police and other responsible authorities.

This barbaric state of affairs cannot be allowed to continue. So long as Malta remains serious about its application for EU membership, it is intolerable that the EU organs, representing its citizens and governments, placidly permit this uncivilised slaughter to take place unconcealed and without condemnation.

We urge you and your delegation, in both your official and private capacities, to strongly condemn the pursuit and tolerance of such primitive rituals, which would lead to severe sanctions, including imprisonment, in other European countries. Not least, it should be made clear to the responsible authorities that the birds of passage which are shot and wounded in great numbers each year, are a declining joint European natural heritage and not the private property of anyone with a gun whom they unfortunately overfly on the way to the breeding grounds or winter quarters. This is NOT an internal matter for Malta, and every delay in putting a stop to the killing is an irreparable setback for the survival of European wildlife as a whole.

We are hopeful that pressure will be put on the Maltese authorities to act swiftly; and to convince them that their inability to get to grips with this sensitive issue is gradually losing them friends and supporters in Europe and elsewhere. The economic consequences will follow.

We look forward to your action in, and comments on this matter and remain,


yours sincerely,

David Conlin

and other concerned Eurobirders, ornithologists and nature lovers, named below and representing the following countries:

ADDRESS/CONTACT

Fon: (+356) 344891
Fax: (+356) 344897
Email: info@delmlt.cec.eu.int

MAIL TO EU DELEGATION TO MALTA