The present layer compiles the marine regions and subregions listed in Article 4 of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD), together with other surrounding seas of Europe. The MSFD marine regions and subregions map was developed to support DG Environment and EU Member States in their implementation of the MSFD. It represents the current state of understanding of the marine regions and subregions and is subject to amendment in light of any new information which may be produced

The Common Database on Designated Areas (CDDA) was created in 2014 by Cogea for the European Marine Observation and Data Network. The CDDA is commonly known as 'Nationally designated areas' and it is the official source of protected area information from the 37 European countries to the World Database of Protected Areas (WDPA). This dataset is entirely based on GIS Data from the European Environmental Agency's (EEA), plus external links and selected EEA tabular data joined by Cogea to the feature attributes, as well as a calculation by Cogea of marine and coastal location of features. The data are delivered by the Eionet partnership countries as spatial and tabular information. The inventory began in 1995 under the CORINE programme of the European Commission. It is now one of the agreed Eionet priority data flows maintained by EEA with support from the European Topic Centre on Biological Diversity. The dataset is used by the EEA and e.g. the UNEP-WCMC for their main European and global assessments, products and services. The CDDA data can be queried online in the European Nature Information System (EUNIS).The whole dataset is available for download on the EMODnet Human Activities portal. In the webmap the EEA dataset has been filtered by Cogea to show only (i) marine areas, i.e. areas with a marine percentage higher than 0 and/or a marine "ecotype" (as calculated or reported by the EEA) and (ii) areas that, even if not identified as marine by the EEA, intersect the coastline or that are within a distance of 1 km from the coastline. In both cases the coast_mar field value=1. The coastline datasets are available at https://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/data/eea-coastline-for-analysis-2 for continental areas, at https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/gisco/geodata/reference-data/administrative-units-statistical-units/countries#countries20 for areas in overseas entities. Geographical coverage of GIS vector boundary data: Albania, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Kosovo under UNSC Resolution 1244/99, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, North Macedonia, Malta, Montenegro, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. Following the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the EU on 31 January 2020, it ceased to be part of the EEA’s institutional networks and governance. EEA does not have permission to distribute some or all sites reported by Estonia, Ireland and Turkey. Compared with the previous release, this one includes the updated dataset 'CDDA_2022_v01_public', published by the EEA in June 2022. For further information please visit the EEA's website.

The dataset on Natura 2000 sites was created in 2014 by Cogea for the European Marine Observation and Data Network. It is entirely based on spatial data from the European Environmental Agency (EEA), plus additional info, links and selected EEA data joined to the feature attributes, as well as a calculation by Cogea of marine and coastal location of features. It is available for viewing and download on EMODnet - Human Activities web portal (https://emodnet.ec.europa.eu/en/human-activities). Natura 2000 is an ecological network composed of sites designated under the Birds Directive (Special Protection Areas, SPAs) and the Habitats Directive (Sites of Community Importance, SCIs, and Special Areas of Conservation, SACs). The dataset covers the whole EU. Following the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the EU on 31 January 2020, it ceased to be part of the EEA’s institutional networks and governance. In the webmap the EEA dataset has been filtered by Cogea to show only (i) marine sites, i.e. sites with a marine area percentage higher than 0 (as calculated by the EEA) and (ii) sites that, even if not identified as marine by the EEA, intersect the EEA coastline or that are within a distance of 1 km from the coastline (using a 1 km inner buffer from the EEA coastline). In both cases the COAST_MAR field value=1. The EEA coastline dataset is available at https://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/data/eea-coastline-for-analysis-2. Compared with the previous version, this one includes the updated dataset 'Natura 2000 End 2021', published by the EEA in April 2021. For further information (e.g. biogeographic region, directive, habitats, sites, impact, management, species and metadata) please visit the EEA's website hosting the Natura 2000 tabular data.