Birds Directive and REACH regulation
The recognized hunting associations Federcaccia, Enalcaccia, ANLC, ANUUMigratoristi, Italcaccia, and the CNCN - National Hunting and Nature Committee, gathered together in the control room of the hunting world, have learned the news of the launch, by the European Commission, of a infringement procedure against Italy for failure to align Italian legislation with EU directives on hunting, and in particular in reference to the Birds Directive and the REACH regulation.
The regulations under examination
From an initial check, it appears that the national regulations on hunting under the attention of the Commission, which are the subject of the EU Pilot procedures, are the following:
the law of 29 December 2022, which introduced the authorization for the regions to provide for control and, if necessary, numerical control plans through the killing or capture of wild species (in particular for the containment of wild boars), as it is deemed non-compliant to the Birds Directive 2009/147/EC;
law 9 October 2023 n. 136 (Asset decree) which amended art 31 of 157/92, as in the Commission's opinion it aims to provide an interpretation of regulation (EU) 2021/57 REACH, limiting the use of ammunition containing lead indoors or near wetlands. This law has the effect of transposing an EU regulation, which constitutes for the Commission a violation of Article 288(2) TFEU. Furthermore, the law is not considered to comply with the amended provisions of the REACH Regulation as it would limit the notion of “wetlands”, add practical obstacles to the detection of the crime and establish a sanction that is not considered proportionate or dissuasive.
Response within two months
The Control Room, considering many of the exceptions raised by the Commission to be specious and unfounded, promptly worked with the competent Ministries to provide support to the Institutions with its own skills in view of the response that the Government will have to provide to the European Commission, within two months . We trust that this deadline will be respected in order to avoid a hunting season full of uncertainties and therefore we ask the Government and the competent Ministries to take prompt action to resolve the problem quickly (source: Federcaccia).