Hunting for Knowledge? The Court invalidates Malta’s Scheme for live-capturing wild Birds: balancing legal Certainty and Proportionality in the Absence of scientific Expertise (C-23/23, Commission v. Malta)

On 19 September 2024 the First Chamber of the Court of Justice (the ‘Court’) delivered its judgment in the infringement action brought by the Commission against Malta. The case concerns the compatibility with EU law, in particular Directive 2009/147/EC (the ‘Directive’) on the Conservation of wild birds, with Malta’s ‘Finches Project’, a regulatory scheme for the live-capturing of seven species of wild migratory finches, in derogation to the mentioned Directive, as foreseen in its Article 9. Interestingly enough, Advocate General (‘AG’) Ćapeta and the First Chamber conducted a fundamentally different analysis.