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Marine waters used in Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD)

This vector data set is the first public version released of the EU marine waters used for the implementation of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD), submitted by the Member States to the European Commission. The Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) applies to all marine waters of EU Member States, which in Article 3 are defined as follows: (a) waters, the seabed and subsoil on the seaward side of the baseline from which the extent of territorial waters is measured extending to the outmost reach of the area where a Member State has and/or exercises jurisdictional rights, in accordance with the UNCLOS, with the exception of waters adjacent to the countries and territories mentioned in Annex II to the Treaty and the French Overseas Departments and Collectivities; and (b) coastal waters as defined by Directive 2000/60/EC, their seabed and their subsoil, in so far as particular aspects of the environmental status of the marine environment are not already addressed through that Directive or other Community legislation.

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Marine Protected Areas (MPA) assessment areas

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 new version (version 2.0) of this dataset is based on a MSFD Region/Subregion boundary shapefile assembled in 2020 by ETC/ICM harmonised with the Coastline and European Seas layers. This dataset has been used to create the MPA buffer zones (version 2) and to show the percentage of marine protected area (MPA) coverage in Europe's regional seas.

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Greenhouse gas emission targets, trends, and Member States MMR projections in the EU, 1990-2050

This figure shows the greenhouse gas emission targets, trends as well as the EU Member States (EU-28 and after 2019 EU-27) MMR projections.

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Conservation status of species under the EU Habitats Directive

At EU level, only 27 % of species assessments have a good conservation status, with 63 % having a poor or bad conservation status. Only 6 % of all species have improving trends. Reptiles and vascular plants have the highest proportion of good conservation status.  The EU did not meet its 2020 target to improve the conservation status of EU protected species and habitats. At Member State level, a large proportion of assessments show few species with a good conservation status. Agriculture, urban sprawl, forestry and pollution are the pressures on species reported most.

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Long term average soil moisture and soil moisture trends, 2000-2019

The maps show the long-term average soil moisture contents (left) and the trends in soil moisture values (right), aggregated by NUTS3 regions. Soil moisture is equal to 0 when the soil is severely dry (wilting point) and equal to 1 when the soil moisture is above the field capacity. Low long-term average soil moisture values indicate areas where during the 2000-2019 period the soil moisture deficit was the biggest problem. Trends are expressed in standard deviation from the long term average. Negative trends indicate that soil moisture values show a decreasing tendency during the 2000-2019 period. Areas with lower soil moisture content together with decreasing tendency in the soil moisture are in risk of loosing their land functions of supplying ecosystem services. See also: https://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/data/data-viewers/soil-moisture and Original dataset: https://edo.jrc.ec.europa.eu/documents/factsheets/factsheet_soilmoisture.pdf

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Soil moisture deficit

Soil moisture deficit

22 Mar 2021

Monitoring the pressure from soil moisture deficits can warn of potential impacts on plant development and soil health, supporting the assessment of drought-tolerant, resilient and vulnerable ecosystems. In 2000-2019, soil moisture in the growing season was several times below the long-term average in the EEA member countries plus the United Kingdom. The largest soil moisture deficits occurred in 2003, 2017 and 2019, affecting over 1.45 million km 2 in 2019. Soil moisture content was also low in 2012, 2015 and 2018, contributing to increasingly frequent and intense drought pressure.

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