Summary
- Links
Documentation
Indicator: Other nationally designated marine protected area coverage
Indicator name
Tag: MAR004
Indicator abbreviated name
Definition: Percentage of marine waters, by Member State and at EU 27 level, covered by nationally designated protected areas and those designated under Regional Sea Conventions namely the Barcelona Convention, HELCOM & OSPAR.
Definition describing what the indicator measures
Unit: % of area protected under nationally designated protected areas, complementary to Natura 2000 sites and those designated under Regional Sea Conventions on marine waters
Measurement unit of the indicator values
Spatial coverage: EU (current composition, only continental areas and Macaronesia)
Geographic area covered by the indicator
Temporal coverage: 2012-2023
Time coverage of the indicator from first to most recent available year
Update frequency: Every year
Frequency at which indicator is updated
DPSIR: Response
DPSIR classification framework: Driver, Pressure, State, Impact, or Response
Method: 1) Calculation of surface from the Nationally designated and Regional Sea Conventions protected areas data eliminating double counting of areas where National sites are overlapping; 2) topological controls and adjustments, other data quality controls; 3) Marine areas are defined in "EEA marine assessment areas - version 3.0, Oct. 2022" dataset. References about these sources are available in the specific dataset's section of this catalogue.
Description of the main methodological steps used to calculate the indicator
Reference: Marine protected areas in Europe's seas - European Environment Agency (https://www.eea.europa.eu/en/analysis/indicators/marine-protected-areas-in-europes-seas); Methodology for indicator calculation (http://cdr.eionet.europa.eu/help/cdda), accessed 19 December 2025.
Reference sources describing the indicator and method to calculate it (e.g. peer-reviewed articles, scientific/technical reports, webpages, other)
Producer: European Environment Agency
Institution which produces the calculation of the indicator values
Provider: European Environment Agency
Institution supplying the indicator values, even if not the original producer of indicator values
Open source: False
Indicates whether calculation code is openly available
Spatial scope (Member States): True
Whether the indicator is available at Member States level
Spatial scope (EU27): True
Whether the indicator is available at EU27 aggregated level
Spatial scope (global): False
Whether the indicator is available at global level
Accuracy uncertainties: Due to differences in data resolution, variations in coastline delineations may occur, potentially leading to minor inaccuracies near coastal regions.
Comment on data accuracy, limitations, and uncertainty
Comments: None
Additional remarks
Storage: None
Webpage link containing the code and/or detailed description of the workflow to calculate the indicator
Copyright/Licence of use: See EEA Copyright/Licence Policy: https://www.eea.europa.eu/legal/. The data are provided by EEA based on data reported by the countries.
Copyright or licensing information related to the indicator
Datasets
Tag: NatDA
Abbreviated designation of the dataset
Dataset name/description: Nationally designated areas for public access (vector data) - May 2024
Full name and/or description of the dataset
Reference: Nationally designated areas - European Environmental Agency (https://www.eea.europa.eu/en/datahub/datahubitem-view/f60cec02-6494-4d08-b12d-17a37012cb28), accessed 19 December 2025
Reference sources describing the dataset
Date: 2024-05-31
Release date of the dataset in the format yyyy-mm-dd
Format: Vector
Format of the dataset (e.g. tabular, raster, vector, or other)
Spatial coverage: EEA38 (from 2020)
Geographic area covered by the dataset
Temporal coverage: 2023-2024
Time coverage of the dataset from first to most recent available year
Resolution: None
Resolution of the dataset
Scale: 100000
Scale of the dataset
Storage
Webpage link where the dataset can be downloaded
Licence of use: The dataset contains parts which are restricted by the data providers and not to be made public. EEA does not have permission to distribute some or all sites reported by Estonia, Ireland and Turkey.
License CC-BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Copyright holder: European Environment Agency (EEA); Estonian Environmental Register 01.01.2021; Land Burgenland, Land Kärnten, Land Niederösterreich, Land Oberösterreich, Land Salzburg, Land Steiermark, Land Tirol, Land Vorarlberg, Stadt Wien aggregated by Austrian Environment Agency.
Licensing information related to the dataset
Access data policy: No limitations to public access
Description of the access data policy of the dataset
Tag: EEA marine assessment areas
Abbreviated designation of the dataset
Dataset name/description: EEA marine assessment areas - version 3.0, Oct. 2022
Full name and/or description of the dataset
Reference: European Environment Agency, 2022 - EEA marine assessment areas - version 3.0, Oct. 2022, (https://sdi.eea.europa.eu/catalogue/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/a14375b6-13fa-44d2-9e01-f8bee5954dbb) accessed 19 December 2025.
Reference sources describing the dataset
Date: 2022-10-14
Release date of the dataset in the format yyyy-mm-dd
Format: Vector
Format of the dataset (e.g. tabular, raster, vector, or other)
Spatial coverage: Baltic Sea, Black Sea, Medterranean Sea, Northeast Atlantic Ocean
Geographic area covered by the dataset
Temporal coverage: 2022-2022
Time coverage of the dataset from first to most recent available year
Resolution: None
Resolution of the dataset
Scale: 100000
Scale of the dataset
Storage
Webpage link where the dataset can be downloaded
Licence of use: EEA standard re-use policy: unless otherwise indicated, re-use of content on the EEA website for commercial or non-commercial purposes is permitted free of charge, provided that the source is acknowledged (http://www.eea.europa.eu/legal/copyright). Copyright holder: Directorate-General for Environment.
Licensing information related to the dataset
Access data policy: No limitation to public access
Description of the access data policy of the dataset
Values
| Country | Value |
|---|---|
| Belgium | 0.1 |
| Bulgaria | 0.0 |
| Cyprus | 0.0 |
| Germany | 0.1 |
| Denmark | 0.5 |
| Estonia | 0.8 |
| Greece | 0.2 |
| Spain | 3.9 |
| Finland | 1.2 |
| France | 9.7 |
| Croatia | 0.1 |
| Ireland | 0.0 |
| Italy | 5.5 |
| Lithuania | 0.1 |
| Latvia | 0.3 |
| Malta | 0.0 |
| Netherlands | 5.1 |
| Poland | 0.0 |
| Portugal | 2.0 |
| Romania | 0.0 |
| Sweden | 3.2 |
| Slovenia | 0.3 |