Brussels, 13/10/2006 (Agence Europe) - On 13 October, the European Commission decided to close the infringement proceedings against Germany over protected nature sites to be part of the EU-wide Natura 2000 network. In 2001, the Court of Justice had judged that Germany had not presented a complete list of “natural sites of Community importance” and was to remedy the situation by 5 June 2005. As Berlin had not complied with this requirement, the Commission had initiated a new procedure against it. On Friday, it decided to close the case, considering that the latest proposal from the German authorities does include a sufficient number of sites. At the same time, the Europe Commission decided to take legal action against Finland, leading to a fine, for failure to fully apply a ruling from the Court of Justice in 2003 on the designation of protected areas under the EU Wild birds Directive. Although Finland had designated a number of new protected areas since the judgement, it did not include an important area in the Åland archipelago, known as Nyhamn-Båtskär. The area is used as a wintering area by the Steller's Eider, a bird species which is under threat worldwide. (ol)