28.12.2004 Official Journal of the European Union L 382/1 (Acts whose publication is not obligatory) COMMISSION COMMISSION DECISION of 7 December 2004 adopting, pursuant to Council Directive 92/43[EEC, the list of sites of Community importance for the Continental biogeographical region (notified under document number C(2004) 4031) (2004/798/EC) THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES, Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, Having regard to Council Directive 92/43/EEC of 21 May 1992 on the conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora () and in particular the third subparagraph of Article 4(2) thereof, Whereas: (1) The Continental biogeographical region referred to in Article 1(c)(iii) of Directive 92[43[EEC, comprises the territory of Luxembourg, parts of the territory of Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Lithuania, Poland, Slovenia and Sweden, as specified in the biogeographical map approved on 23 October 2000 by the Habitats Committee set up under Article 20 of the Directive. This decision does not cover the territories of the Member States that joined the European Community on 1 May 2004. These Member States initiated the trans- mission of their site proposals to the Commission on that date. As a consequence, the Commission is not in a position to integrate the information from these Member States into the present initial list of sites of Community importance, within the meaning of Directive 92/43/EEC. These data will be subject to a future Commission deci- sion, when all the pertinent information will have been collected and when an in-depth scientific evaluation of the site proposals from these Member States will have been made. (') OJ L 206, 22.7.1992,fp. 7. Directive as last amended by Regulation t (EC) No 1882/2003 o (OJ L 284, 31.10.2003, p. 1). he European Parliament and of the Council G) It is furthermore necessary in the context of a process initiated since 1995 to establish the Natura 2000 network, which is an essential element of the protection of biodiversity in the European Community, to make progress in the actual establishment of the network by not delaying this decision. For the Continental biogeographical region, lists of sites proposed as sites of Community importance within the meaning of Article 1 of Directive 92/43/EEC have been transmitted to the Commission between November 2003 and June 2004, in accordance with Article 4(1) of the Directive, by Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and Sweden. The lists of proposed sites were accompanied by infor- mation on each site, supplied in the format established by Commission Decision 97/266/EC of 18 December 1996 concerning a site information format for proposed Natura 2000 sites (%). That information includes the most recent and definitive map of the site transmitted by the Member State in ques- tion, the site’s name, location and extent, and the data yielded by application of the criteria specified in Annex III to Directive 92/43/EEC. On the basis of the draft list drawn up by the Commis- sion in agreement with each of the Member States concerned, which also identifies sites hosting priority natural habitat types or priority species, a list of sites selected as sites of Community importance should be adopted. () OJL 107, 24.4.1997, p. 1.