The Council of State has ordered the French government to repeal the 1989 framework decrees concerning the hunting of glue and traps called tenderies, techniques that have been de facto banned in recent years by the courts.
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The Minister responsible for hunting is ordered to repeal the decrees of 17 August 1989 relating respectively to the use of gluaux for the capture of thrushes and blackbirds intended to serve as callers in the departments of Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, Alpes-Maritimes, Bouches-du-Rhône, Var and Vaucluse, tenderie aux vanneaux in the department of Ardennes and tenderie aux grives in the same department. " says the Council of State in its decision issued Wednesday.
Framework orders still in force
A "period of two months from notification of this decision" shall be given to the Government to comply with this decision. The Ministry of Ecological Transition told AFP that it "will naturally follow up on this injunction of the Council of State", recalling that in fact, these decrees "are already inoperative".
The hunting of glue had already been deemed illegal by the highest French administrative court in June 2021, but this decision did not directly concern the 1989 framework decrees which therefore still remained in force. "These framework decrees constitute the legal basis on which the ministry relied each year to authorize these practices and set ceilings for annual levies," recalls the League for the Protection of Birds (LPO), applicant in this case, in a statement.
This "definitive repeal (...) will no longer allow the government to reoffend with impunity each year by authorizing at the request of hunters practices that it knows are illegal" and "finally closes an unspeakable approach that had lasted too long," said the president of the LPO, Allain Bougrain Dubourg.
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The government stresses that it has not taken annual orders on gluals since 2020 and on tenderies (traps) since 2022. However, last January, the European Commission asked the France to put an end to illegal methods of hunting birds, such as the use of glue, giving it two months to act. Otherwise, it could refer the matter to the Court of Justice of the European Union, a procedure that could lead to financial penalties.
Regarding other traditional hunting methods such as pantes (nets) and mats (cages) used for larks, uncertainty remains however because the government issued a new framework order on October 4 on them. The latter was challenged on the merits before the Council of State by the LPO.