Beware those meeting behind closed doors and who seek to draw the
official cloak of respectability around themselves. The hunters in the
European Union countries never give up and are hardened political
lobbyists.
POST WIDELY IN EUROPE PLEASE
I have as yet unconfirmed information from a source in Germany that we
could be faced by a far worse problem than the 2000 campaign by MEP
Michl Ebner to circumvent hunting restrictions in Europe. We stopped him
then (and gave me the idea for Proact)
According to my information a European Commission Working Group has been
sitting since October 2001 - at the request of the United Kingdom,
Germany and Italy (!!!) - to produce 'An Interpretation Guide' to the
Bird Directive. And who sits on this commttee? Several hunters of
course; and a Birdlife member from the Netherlands (Mr Osieck).
There are 2 different versions on what the tasks of the working group
are:
- The BirdLife view: the group is "not doing anything special", and
- The German Environment Ministry: which states that the group is
working on the concepts of "wise use" and "small quantities.
I don't like the sound of the latter at all! What are small quantities -
OF DEAD BIRDS - in the context of the Bird Directive. And what
environmental basis have we for increasing any form of bird killing in
our over-industrialised continent. If the Italian representatives
(think Berlusconi and Hunters) have any thing to say it will _only_ be
in the hundreds of thousands.Have governments made no environmental
progress in the past 30 years? Why are we still pandering to a
bloodthirsty and outdated, (often well-heeled) elite? For fat party
contributions or overvalued promises of bloc votes.?
We have fought hard and long to have the Directive(s) accepted and
spent many years defending it. We must remain vigilant! If not, we might
as well call it a day in Malta and Cyprus.
ACTION NOW:
We need more and better information before taking action.
When sufficient information is gathered Proact can - and will - run a
campaign to put a stop to any attempt to let the hunters in by the back
door; and we will have strong support from a friendly organisation in
Germany.
Please pass this (not yet fully confirmed) information to ALL contacts;
gather as much information as you can; and pass it to
before we launch a campaign.
------------------
david camilleri
http://www.MaltaTouristAction.org
In future the new Proact Team Group will be used for "Free discussion on
Proact campaigns, policy, organisation and allied matters."
You can sign on now and start discussing at
< http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Proactteam >
Proact ta' KullPajjiz- nahdmu ghall-ghasafar u l-abitat taghhom .....qabel
isir tard wisq, zur http://www.proactnow.org
Zommu ruhkhom aggornati minn - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proactnews/
Editor, Malta Independent email to:
Editor, Times of Malta email to:
President, Prof. Guido de Marco email to:
Prime Minister email to:
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