Site Designation and Establishment of Conservation Measures
Habitats Directive - Selection and Designation of Special Areas of Conservation (SACs)
In the second phase, the European Commission decides which of the proposed sites will be declared of Community importance (Article 4 (2)) (SCI, Site of Community Importance). The Commission pays special attention to transboundary sites and to sites hosting priority habitat types or priority species.
Regarding the procedure for SAC designation, Member States can introduce new designation procedures or adapt existing ones and/or underpin the designation by other legal acts. They have a choice in the type of legal act they use - whether it is statutory, contractual or administrative - and can decide at which administrative level (e.g. national or regional) it is most appropriate to designate SACs. It is also up to Member States to determine whether the designation act is done for one site at a time or whether it covers multiple sites. 
However, whatever procedure is used, there needs to be a clear legal basis underpinning SAC designation and Member States should ensure the unquestionable binding force of that designation. The designated Act itself must also provide sufficient clarity to satisfy the requirements of the Directive with legal certainty.
This is consistent with existing case-law (Commission/Belgium, C-415/01)3;
- the provisions of directives must be implemented with unquestionable binding force, and the specificity, precision and clarity necessary to satisfy the requirements of legal certainty. The principle of legal certainty requires appropriate publicity for the national measures adopted pursuant to Community rules in such a way as to enable the persons concerned by such measures to ascertain the scope of their rights and obligations in the particular area governed by Community law.
- With regard to maps demarcating SPAs, they must be invested with unquestionable binding force. If not the boundaries of SPAs could be challenged at any time. Also there would be a risk that the objective of protection under Article 4 of the Directive on birds would not be fully attained.