Pursuant to "Facilitation of policy and legislative reforms for SAP MED and SAP BIO", MAP requested to RAC/SPA to identify Mediterranean countries' needs in legal, policy and institutional reforms to strengthen the management of existing marine protected areas. The result is the present study identifying and prioritising the main needs of Mediterranean countries for legal, policy and institutional reforms to strengthen the management of existing marine protected areas. It is focused on the twelve Mediterranean countries covered by the GEF project: Albania, Algeria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Egypt, Lebanon, Libya, Montenegro, Morocco, Syria, Tunisia and Turkey. It further presents for reference basic related information from several EU countries within the region: France, Greece, Italy and Spain.The work was strongly benefited from the active participation of National Focal Points. They responded to specific requests for information on legal and institutional frameworks, although some key documents were eithe unavailable or not available in translation. The study made also available technical advise for improvements on those aspects in the region, including also specific proposals for the GEF beneficiary countries, not included in this document, and to be directly delivered to each concerned Party. This study was transmitted as information document to the SPA Focal Points at their Eighth Meeting held at Palermo, Italy from 6-9 June 2007.