European Commission official says Malta has no justification for bird trapping derogations Finch trapping had to stop when Malta’s exceptional transition period lapsed five years after joining the EU, Brussels official says 1 March 2021, 1:36pm by Kurt Sansone Malta’s latest attempt to justify finch trapping on scientific grounds was questioned by a top Brussels official, who had been involved in EU accession negotiations. Micheal O’Briain, deputy head of the Nature Unit in the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Environment, emphasised that Malta was the only country that ever got a transition period to phase out trapping when it joined the EU.