The European Commission has adopted the inclusion of 235 additional natural areas to the Natura 2000 network. The last update includes not only the inclusion of new sites, but also the extension and modification of some that were already part of the network. Further to the update the Natura 2000 network amounts for nearly 25,000 km2 of protected areas.

The last update adopted by the European Commission regarding the areas included in the Natura 2000 network affects twenty nine Member States and all nine biogeographic regions of the network. In this case the countries that have contributed most to the extension of the Natura 2000 network are For the last update the United Kingdom, Romania, Latvia, Italy, Sweden, Bulgaria, Denmark, France, Slovakia, Estonia and Malta are the countries that have contributed the most to the extension of the network. With the inclusion of the 230 new protected areas, the Natura 2000 network now has a total of 22,793 spaces and its length has widen by 3.4%.

The largest contribution come from the UK, as it has been designated as a protected area the Dogger Bank, a marine area of 12,330 km2 shallow which is in the central part of the North Sea. Combined with the German and Dutch spaces, the Dogger Bank forms an extensive trans-boundary protected area that will contribute to a better conservation and to a more efficient management of fisheries resources.

The largest extension of the network on land comes in this last update from Romania, that has included 109 new sites and has also expanded some areas that were already part of the network, so that the total area of sites now covers almost 42 000 km2. In addition to protected areas in Bulgaria and Slovakia, the inclusions of protected spaces in Romania will provide better protection for the rich endemic fish fauna of the Danube.