# Marine Protected Areas (MPA) assessment areas - version 1, Feb. 2017

The spatial extent of the MPA assessment areas was defined as the marine waters surrounding the EU countries whose outer limit is defined by the 200 NM boundary from the coast (possibly coinciding with formally recognised EEZ boundaries) or the equidistance (in cases of opposite neighbouring EU countries), or by the presence of a boundary defined by an agreed treaty. Given no formal boundary of this map exists and since this limit coincides with the boundary of the maritime area (water column) submitted by EU Member States under MSFD, this dataset was based on a MSFD Region/Subregion boundary shapefile assembled in 2013 by ETC/ICM integrated with the Maritime Boundaries (version 7) from the Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ). 
This dataset has been used to create the map that shows the percentage marine protected area (MPA) coverage in Europe's regional seas and also the distance to the Convention on Biological Diversity Aichi target 11.https://sdi.eea.europa.eu/geonetwork/srv/api/records/c3288c38-e33a-48f9-b1dc-1f79c3e3be3f


[More information](https://sdi.eea.europa.eu/catalogue/srv/api/records/c3288c38-e33a-48f9-b1dc-1f79c3e3be3f)
    