The vast majority of bathing water sites in Europe comply with the strictest EU standards, according to the latest annual report published by the European Commission on Tuesday 28 May.
“This represents 85.4% of the EU’s most popular bathing waters. No less than 96% of all officially identified bathing waters in the EU meet the minimum quality standards, with only 1.5% classified as ‘poor’”, it adds in a press release.
The assessment was carried out by the European Environment Agency on 22,000 sites and focuses on bathing safety through monitoring of bacteria that can cause serious illness, rather than general water quality.
Greece, Croatia, Cyprus and Austria are the countries with the highest proportion of excellent quality bathing water.
The proportion of poor-quality bathing waters has stabilised since 2015. However, 321 ‘poor’ quality sites were still reported in 2023. France had 99 and Italy 72, followed by Spain (39).
Although most European bathing waters are classified as being in excellent condition, pollution of surface and groundwater remains significant and could be exacerbated by climate change, says the report.
The quality of coastal bathing waters is generally better than that of rivers and lakes. In 2023, around 89% of the EU’s coastal bathing waters were classified as ‘excellent’, compared with just under 79% of inland bathing waters.
Link to the study: https://aeur.eu/f/ce9 (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)