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Europa has the densest, diversified and completely transport system on the entire world. Maritime transports have developed since ancient times (in the Mediterranean basin and the countries bordering the Atlantic Ocean) and they are still in development because they present a key point in freight transport. Europe controls one third of the world's commercial fleet and is one of the world's leading maritime centres with 329 key ports along the coast, including Rotterdam, which is the second largest port in the world. Although Europe provides high standards of environmental protection, several challenges limit the potential of this sector. It is necessary to take measures to limit pollution due to ship traffic, gas emissions and ship waste. The aim of this paper is to identify principal sea state characteristics of the seas, the main types of ships that cross these waters and their impact on the marine traffic. Several European seas were studied in order to fulfil this scope. For each sea, the main types of area-specific ships were studied and the density of maritime traffic. Moreover, the sea states were analyses based on information provided by ERA5, the fifth generation ECMWF (European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts) reanalysis for the global climate. The average values for both the significant wave heights and the wave period were calculated, for the period 1989-2018. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]