A uniform system of environmental protection has been created in the beginning of the 21st century in the member countries of the European Union. This system is known as European Ecological Natura 2000 Network. This network consists of thousands of bigger and smaller sites established according to legal acts of European Union.

These legal acts are: Council Directive 79/409/EEC on Wild Birds known as the Birds Directive and Council Directive 92/43/EEC on the conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora known as Habitats Directive.

Birds Directive is the base for creating Special Protection Areas. These sites must be inhabited by at least one of 194 species of birds enlisted in Annex I of Birds Directive.

Sites of Community Importance are created according to the guidelines of Habitats Directive. These are the areas where we can find at least one of 200 species of animals and 434 species of plants or at least one of 300 types of habitats enlisted in the Annex to this directive.

Establishing the Natura 2000 network in each country is the duty of governments of all EU member countries. These countries are obliged protect, preserve and reconstruct such sites. If conditions in any of such sites deteriorates, a different area with the same habitats must be enlarged.

Natura 2000 sites which has already been established often lay within the previously existent protection areas, e.g. national parks, landscape and nature reserves. However, it happens that they are established in places that have not been protected before, like agricultural areas.

The European Ecological Network will develop and get its shape through the oncoming decades. The continuously changing environment of the European continent will most probably force changes into the concept of the network, to make it fit current needs of environmental protection.

The Sites of Community Importance and Special Protection Areas are not areas of strict protection like nature reserves or national parks. These are the sites where all natural features should be preserved in such state as they are now, including agriculture, industry, transport and other types of human activities. This form of environmental protection prevents the degradation of natural environment without isolating it from humans.

EU regulations do not specify the means by which the final effect should be reached. The government is responsible for execution of these regulations. The proposed areas can only be established when local governments, owners and administrators of this areas will approve the location.

EU directives specify the general goals, the means of protection and the choice of specific sites are left in the hands of the governments of member countries. This generates some obstacles during the process of creating the network. Local interest groups and politicians often try to decrease the number and range of protected areas. It often happens that  some sites which should be protected are not included in the Natura 2000 network due to political or economic reasons.

Some member countries have been judged by the European Court of Justice in the recent years for not including some areas that should have been included in the Natura 2000 network. Slow pace of creating new sites and numerous difficulties in this process concern most EU member countries. Also in Poland the list of sites proposed by scientists and non-governmental organizations is much larger than the list of officially accepted Natura 2000 sites.