The decision of the judges
With sentence 31/1/2024, n. 982 the Council of State accepted the appeal proposed by the Liguria Region, with the support of Federcaccia, ANUU, Arcicaccia, Enalcaccia and LiberaCaccia, ascertaining the illegitimacy of ISPRA's refusal to determine the so-called small amounts referred to in the art. 19-bis, paragraph 3, law no. 157/1992, for the purpose of activating the exemptions pursuant to art. 9, paragraph 1, letter. c) of the Birds Directive. The Council of State stated that ISPRA's reasons - according to which (i) it would be impossible to determine the small quantities for the majority of passerine species and (ii) infringement procedure number 2006/2131 against the State would prevent this Italian – are illogical.
The reference to ISPRA
According to the Administrative Judge "What ISPRA should have done instead is to give effective application to the criteria set out in the Guide and determine the small quantity accordingly, or to explain, again with reference to those criteria, why the determination was not in as concrete as possible". Federcaccia observes that, if ISPRA is required to effectively apply the criteria of the "Guide to the regulation of hunting in the context of Directive 79/409/EC on the conservation of wild birds", there does not appear to be any margin left for refusing to determine the small quantities, given that the same Guide provides for a closing rule to allow Member States to calculate small quantities even in the absence of data (see par. 3.5.39 of the Guide according to which "In the absence of such data or in the presence of data incomplete, it will be necessary to use minimum estimates of the numerical size of the population and of mortality rates, based on the best available data".
The satisfaction of the hunting world
The ruling of the Council of State is the result of an intuition of Ligurian politics (in particular of Francesco Bruzzone and Alessio Piana) and of the regional president of Federcaccia, lawyer. Andrea Campanile, as well as the support provided by ANUU, Arcicaccia, Enalcaccia and LiberaCaccia. Federcaccia does not hide his great satisfaction with this ruling which reopens an issue that ISPRA had "frozen" for almost twenty years now; However, it is necessary not to give in to easy triumphalism as this is a first (albeit fundamental) step in the complex procedure for activating the exemptions. We thank the lawyer. Pietro Balletti who sponsored Federcaccia and the other hunting associations in this important match (source: FIDC).
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