Thrush, woodcock and cesena: the government closes the hunt on January 20 in 7 regions

The Council of Ministers approved the exercise of replacement powers on the hunting calendar: the aim was not to worsen the Italian position vis-à-vis the EU.

di Simone Ricci

January 16 2016

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Yesterday, Friday 15 January 2016, the Cabinet met at Palazzo Chigi to address some issues and resolutions. One of the most important concerned the exercise of substitute powers on the hunting calendar: what specifically was decided? The CdM will be able to exercise these powers vis-à-vis seven regions, namely Tuscany, Calabria, Liguria, Marche, Puglia, Lombardy and Umbria, with the consequent modification of their hunting calendar and the closing of the season on the date of 20 January 2016 for species song thrush, woodcock e cesena.

The intervention was defined as necessary to avoid a coincidence: the Renzi government did not want the conclusion of January 31 established by these regions to correspond to the same date of the pre-nuptial or breeding period of the species mentioned above, as there would have been a violation of European Union legislation. Furthermore, according to the press release of the Council of Ministers, the position of our country would have further worsened with regard to the possible negative closure of the case Eu-Pilot 6955 of 2014 initiated by the European Commission.

The procedure has to do with hunting calendars. The executive recalled how since July last year and on other occasions there have been several sensitization of local authorities on the adoption of changes to the calendars found to be non-compliant. Last December 23, then, the nine non-compliant regions were warned to take the necessary measures to modify the hunting calendars within fifteen days: the note underlines how the non-compliance by some of the regions involved has recourse to the exercise of substitute powers was made necessary.

Il Ministry of the Environment proposed the insertion of a clause to determine the invalidity of the resolutions, obtaining a positive response: the insertion will take place in the event that the competent regions from a territorial point of view intervene on their respective calendars by the date of the next 19st January (therefore in exactly three days), that is the deadline within which to adopt the requested changes.

The case 6955 of 2014 referred to above was initiated by Brussels in relation to the doubts of violation of a community directive, the 147 of 2009 (relating to the conservation of wild birds). There was some doubt about the uprising of the case. In particular, the Commission had to explain the reasons for which warnings were sent to the regions, asking for the shortening of the hunting season, despite the fact that the Eu Pilot communication was simply a request for information on the hunting calendars of our country.