EU states accused of trying to hide water pollution

(BRUSSELS) - The European Commission expressed concern Thursday that some countries are removing bathing sites from an EU health watch list to try to hide polluted waters.

The Commission said that while most bathing sites in the 25-member European Union last year met the bloc's health standards, 88 coastal sites and 166 freshwater zones had been removed from the official list.

"Despite these encouraging results I am very concerned by the number of bathing sites withdrawn from the list," EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas said in a statement.

"Removing sites from the list because they are polluted is not a solution. Member states must instead draw up plans for clearing up these polluted sites," he said, as the Commission released its annual bathing water report ahead of the summer holidays.

A total of 21,094 bathing areas were monitored for physical, chemical and microbiological properties in the EU in 2006 -- 14,345 in coastal areas and 6,749 in freshwaters inland -- a slight increase from 2005.

EU member countries -- whose numbers swelled to 27 with the arrival of Bulgaria and Romania in January this year -- are at liberty to choose which sites should be listed.

They could declare some sites unsuitable for swimming to escape controls.

The Commission said in a statement that it was concerned that the de-listing was being done "to mask pollution problems and artificially improve compliance results without tackling the problem at the source".

It did not name any culprits, but noted that warnings were sent to 11 countries last year -- Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and Sweden -- for taking such action.

The report noted, however, that 96 percent of bathing sites in EU coastal waters and 89 percent in rivers and lakes met health safety standards.

The EU's executive arm advised people heading for European waters this summer to check the state of their favourite spot on the Internet at: http://ec.europa.eu/water/water-bathing/index fr.html.