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Worldwide, the restoration of anthropogenically degraded ecosystems has become a challenge for human society. Practical ecosystem restoration, as well as restoration ecology as the related science, has gathered comprehensive experience in restoring ecosystem services during recent decades, in particular on terrestrial sites including lakes, rivers with their floodplains, as well as on wetlands. In contrast, there are considerable conceptional knowledge gaps with regard to marine ecosystems, although the environmental damage to marine ecosystems has reached a tremendous degree. Whereas some basic concepts and objectives as well as restoration measures can be transferred from terrestrial and limnic to marine ecosystems, there is also a need for specific approaches for the restoration of marine systems; these take their huge vertical and horizontal dimension into account and address the ecological knowledge gaps with regard to these marine ecosystems and their organisms. With a focus on the North Sea and the Baltic Sea, three spatially differentiated areas of operational activity for ecosystem restoration are identified. Environmental policy at the national as well as the international level provides a framework for ecosystem restoration action in Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]