Annexes of the directive list those species and habitat types of community interest, upon which designation is based. On the contrary of Special Protection Areas, designation of Special Areas of Conservation is an elongated procedure, which includes a series of discussions between the experts of the member state and the European Commission in order to reach agreement. Designation of the Hungarian sites and finalization of the network is still in progress. It will expectedly be completed by 2013 the latest.
The average extension of the Special Areas of Conservation is smaller than that of the Special Protection Areas. In many cases, their size does not exceed a few hundreds of hectares.
Until now 467 sites have been designated. However, further agreements may result in smaller or larger changes, probably regarding not number, but the final border of the sites.
Proposed Sites of Community Interest (pSCI = "pre-SACs")