Site selection and designation under the Habitats and Birds Directives: a Sisyphean task?

According to the EU Natura 2000 barometer of the European Commission, ¹ the overall surface area of Natura 2000 network in the Member States varies between about 5 and 30 per cent of the territory of each Member State. At first sight, these figures seem impressive. However, as witnessed by the predominance of designation-related issues in the case law of the EU Court of Justice, the selection and designation of the Special Protection Areas (SPAs) under the Birds Directive and Special Areas of Conservation (SACs) under the Habitats Directive proved to be quite troublesome.