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Several environmental associations have uncovered a letter from the European Commission that is said to reject Bill 1552 carried by Minister Lollobrigida, currently under discussion in the Senate.
An official letter, sent as early as December 2025 to the Italian government, is said to have been concealed. In this document, the European Commission firmly rejects essential parts of bill no. 1552, which overturns law 157/1992 on the protection of wildlife in order to favor the hunting world through a series of unjustifiable, harmful and illegitimate concessions.
It was the associations ENPA, LAC, LAV, Legambiente, LIPU-BirdLife Italia and WWF Italia who managed to get their hands on this "deliberate" document which was deliberately ignored by President Meloni and the center-right majority.
The document highlights serious violations of the Birds and Habitats Directives, which concern the very backbone of the bill, including:
- the extension of hunting outside authorized periods ;
- the weakening of scientific advice fromISPRA (Institut Supérieur pour la Protection et la Recherche Environnementale);
- the use of optical sighting devices;
- the liberalization of live decoys, with concrete risks of poaching and illegal trafficking.
"We are faced with extremely serious behavior on the part of the government", say the associations. "The fact that the European Commission intervened even before the law came into force, in an area such as hunting, is unusual and confirms the dangerousness of what is contained in Bill 1552, whose first signatory is (Senator) Malan. Despite this, the executive knew about it and didn't budge. They continued to accuse us of disseminating fake news while they tried to hide and distort the truth, and today they find themselves once again blatantly denied. An irresponsible act that puts electoral interests ahead of the protection of the commons, exposing Italy to new infringement proceedings, with the very real risk of being caught in the crossfire.This exposes Italy to new infringement proceedings, with the very real risk of making citizens - who are overwhelmingly opposed to hunting - pay the cost of any sanctions."
Despite the European Union's clear remarks, the government deliberately chose to ignore the memo, without even mentioning it publicly. The parliamentary procedure thus continued unchanged, ending yesterday with an initial adoption by the Senate's Environment and Agriculture Committees. The silence of the Undersecretary for Agriculture, Patrizio La Pietra, is also a factor.
In the meantime, the text has been further tightened by numerous amendments from the majority, all aimed at giving more leeway to hunting lobbies and that part of the agricultural world which seeks to exploit hunting as a source of profit. According to the associations, these measures do not reflect the real interests of thousands of farmers, and ignore prevailing opinion. All the proposals for improvement put forward by the opposition were, on the other hand, rejected.
The associations are now calling for the immediate blocking of the measure and the deletion of the provisions contested by the European Commission, in order to prevent Parliament from adopting a law deemed illegitimate and harmful.
(©GreenMe.it 2026/Managing editor : Julie Morgan - The Press Junction/Picture : picture alliance / Photoshot | -)