The Habitat directive's protection mechanisms - such as obligatory impact assessments ex art. 6 - do not apply to sites only nominated for inclusion in the Natura 2000 network, but not yet formally endorsed as such. At the same time, the ECJ stresses that if sites are eligible for identification as sites of Community importance and are included in the national lists transmitted to the Commission and, in particular, these sites are hosting priority natural habitat types or priority species, the Member States are, by virtue of the directive, required to take protective measures that are appropriate, from the point of view of the Directive’s conservation objective, for the purpose of safeguarding the relevant ecological interest which those sites have at the national level. The ECJ fails to identify a concrete legal basis from the Habitat directive from which this legal obligation stems. Also, the link that is made between on the one hand the directive's conservation objective - which is primary of a European nature - and on the other hand the national ecological interest in safeguarding a site not yet formally endorsed as a part of Natura 2000 does not seem to give the national judge much guidance.