# Europe's Seas - version 1, Dec. 2018

In the Marine Strategy Framework Directive - MSFD (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), four marine regions are listed (Article 4): Baltic Sea, North-east Atlantic Ocean, Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea, among which the following two are further divided into four subregions each:

North-east Atlantic Ocean:
o The Greater North Sea, including the Kattegat and the English Channel
o The Celtic Seas
o The Bay of Biscay and the Iberian Coast
o Macaronesia

Mediterranean Sea:
o The Western Mediterranean Sea
o The Adriatic Sea
o The Ionian Sea and the Central Mediterranean Sea
o The Aegean-Levantine Sea

Apart of these, there are other seas also surrounding Europe, namely the Norwegian, Iceland, Barents and White Seas. 

The present layer provides the spatial extent of Europe's seas, including the MSFD regions and subregions, as agreed by the MSFD Committee in November 2016. It is provided in ESRI Geodatabase and OGC Geopackage formats.https://sdi.eea.europa.eu/geonetwork/srv/api/records/7ce1666b-fcdc-4cf3-91f0-96b58ad14e99


[More information](https://sdi.eea.europa.eu/catalogue/srv/api/records/7ce1666b-fcdc-4cf3-91f0-96b58ad14e99)
    