Marine protected areas in Europe's seas : an overview and perspectives for the future

This document reports on progress made to date in establishing MPAs and MPA networks in Europe's seas, specifically MPAs reported by European Union (EU) Member States up to and including 2012. It also discusses how best to assess the effectiveness of these MPAs and determine their effectiveness in protecting biodiversity across Europe's seas. This document supports the European Commission's progress report on MPAs to the European Parliament and to the Council under Article 21 of Directive 2008/56/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 June 2008 establishing a framework for community action in the field of marine environmental policy - the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) (EC, 2008). For this reason, it does not include information on European Environment Agency (EEA) collaborating countries that are not EU Member States. Likewise, it has not been possible to evaluate the relevance of efforts under the Agreement of the Conservation of Cetaceans in the Black Sea, the Mediterranean and Contiguous Atlantic Area (ACCOBAMS), nor in the Emerald Network, the Ramsar sites (i.e. of the Convention on Wetlands of International Importance Especially as Waterfowl Habitat) and the Biosphere Reserves for European MPAs.