The EMODPACE project was approved by the European Commission, with the aim of promoting international ocean governance between EU and China, and support the implementation of global commitments, by making ocean marine data and data products more easily accessible and by providing better data and data products. In this context one of the objectives of EMODPACE is to compare European and Chinese models by analysing the applicability of each side models for ecosystem vulnerability. Hence, applying the Chinese Marine Resource-Environment Carrying Capacity and Spatial Development Suitability approach to a European sea (in this case, the Bay of Biscay) and looking for potential comparison with the Maritime Spatial Planning Directive (MSPD) and the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) approaches in Europe, covers the abovementioned objective. The Bay of Biscay was selected because the abundance of data availability and previous transboundary management in the application of the MSPD and MSFD. China has carried out many years of research and application in the fields of carrying capacity, and the official methodology of ‘Marine Resource-Environment Carrying Capacity (MRECC) and Spatial Development Suitability’ developed and applied for MSP in coastal and marine area was adapted to the European context, in terms of the MSFD and the MSPD. The Chinese official methodology was applied to the Bay of Biscay. The methodology involves three different steps: (i) an evaluation of the marine ecological protection (MEP), which includes species and habitats (i.e., biodiversity protection); (ii) an evaluation of the Spatial Development Suitability, identifying the needs for marine activities development and the current use of the sea space; and (iii) an ecological risk identification and the evaluation of the MRECC, by intersecting results from (i) and (ii). After collating information for 31 species of interest (fish, reptiles, mammals and birds), seven habitats (seagrass, seaweeds, saltmarshes, fishery growing areas, tidal flats, estuaries and other unique habitats), marine protected areas and eight current human activities at sea (aquaculture, ports, ocean energy facilities, shipping, aggregate extraction and dredging, fisheries, military areas and tourism and recreation), they were aggregated and intersected (ecological data vs human activities), and the ecological risk was determined. Since the total area covered by Marine Protected Areas and Marine Ecological Protection importance areas is 135,372 km2, the available carrying capacity for marine development activities within the Bay of Biscay is 229,266 km2. Weighting the marine ecological protection and human activities, the importance areas increase and the available carrying capacity decreases 0.2%, being now 228,637 km2. Hence, it has been shown that this methodology is applicable to Europe, but more applications in different areas are needed, as well as improve the information for some species and habitats, in order to obtain more accurate results.