Geoparks in the legal framework of the EU countries

Geoparks are areas where sites of international geological significance are managed with a holistic concept of sustainable development. Although the geoparks concept is implemented in many European countries, it is still not well known. The current research aims to clarify how the geoparks concept is considered in the legal framework of the EU countries as well as to direct the attention of the environmental and territorial planning authorities, and scientists, working in this field, to the need of establishing and implementing clear legal tools to facilitate geoparks functioning. The practice of Austria, Germany, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal and Spain is considered in the paper. The results show that a special legal tool for geological heritage protection and conservation should be elaborated and implemented in the most of the European countries. Regarding the integrating geoparks concept in the national legislation good practices are reported in Italy, Spain and Portugal.