Malta has broken European Union law with an exemption for hunters to capture seven species of finches on the Mediterranean island, the EU's top court ruled Thursday.

Environmentalists have called the trapping a cruel practice in which the birds are killed before they can breed but supporters defend it as a longstanding custom.

"By adopting a certain derogation regime allowing the capture of seven species of wild birds, Malta has failed to fulfil its obligations under EU law," the European Court of Justice ruled.

The European Commission, the EU's executive arm, referred Malta to the top court in 2015 over the trapping of the birds.

Though hunting is outlawed by the EU Birds Directive, Malta applies yearly for a short period of exemption.

Maltese voters also narrowly approved the continuation of the hunts in a referendum in April 2015.

Siding with the commission, the court said Malta met none of the conditions for an exemption, including stipulating that the trapping concerns only "small numbers" of birds.

It cited a 2007 study that said "trapping in Malta is so intensive that only a handful of each of the common finch species regularly breed on the islands."

In contrast, the finches breed in high numbers in other parts of the Mediterranean, according to the study by the non-government organisation BirdLife Malta.

Malta must now immediately comply with the ruling or face the risk of fines.

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