Close Menu
    Latest Category
    • Finance
    • Tech
    • EU Law
    • Energy
    • About
    • Contact
    EUbusiness.com | EU news, business and politicsEUbusiness.com | EU news, business and politics
    Login
    • EU News
    • Focus
    • Guides
    • Press
    • Jobs
    • Events
    • Directory
    EUbusiness.com | EU news, business and politicsEUbusiness.com | EU news, business and politics
    Home » Europe’s bathing waters get mostly clean bill of health

    Europe’s bathing waters get mostly clean bill of health

    npsBy nps11 June 2019Updated:25 June 2024 No Comments3 Mins Read
    — Filed under: Environment EU News Headline2
    Share
    Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Email
    Europe's bathing waters get mostly clean bill of health

    Zakhintos, Greece – Photo Pixabay

    (BRUSSELS) – Just over 85 per cent of bathing water sites monitored across Europe last year met the EU’s highest ‘excellent’ and most stringent quality standards for water cleanliness, says its annual bathing water report.

    According to this year’s report from the European Environment Agency (EEA) and the European Commission, 95.4 per cent of the 21,831 bathing water sites monitored in the 28 EU Member States met the minimum quality requirements under EU rules,. 300 bathing sites monitored in Albania and Switzerland have also been included in the report.

    The level of bathing sites meeting the most stringent ‘excellent’ quality standards rose slightly from 85.0% in 2017 to 85.1% last year. The number of those meeting the minimum ‘sufficient’ standing fell from 96% to 95.4% from 2017 to 2018. This minor drop is mostly due to the opening of new bathing waters sites for which the dataset of four bathing seasons required for the classification by the Directive is not yet available. In 2018, 301 (or 1.3%) of all bathing water sites in the EU, Albania and Switzerland were rated as having ‘poor’ water quality. This is slightly lower than the 1.4 % in 2017.

    “Our report confirms that Member States’ efforts over the last 40 years, mainly in wastewater treatment, have paid off,” said the EEA’s Executive Director Hans Bruyninckx: “Today, most Europeans enjoy excellent bathing water quality. However, this is only one of the many components, ranging from tackling plastic pollution to protecting marine life, we need to work on in order to achieve healthier seas, lakes and rivers.”

    Bathing water requirements are set out in the EU’s Bathing Water Directive. Implementation of its rules has helped to vastly improve the quality of Europe’s bathing water over the last 40 years. Effective monitoring and management introduced under the directive combined with the investments in the urban waste water treatment have led to a drastic reduction in untreated or partially treated municipal and industrial waste ending up in the water. Under the rules, local authorities collect water samples at officially identified bathing sites throughout the swimming season. Samples are analysed for two types of bacteria that indicate pollution from sewage or livestock.

    Some key findings:

    • In four countries, 95% or more of bathing sites were found to have excellent water quality: Cyprus (99.1% of all sites), Malta (98.9% of all sites), Austria (97.3% of all sites), and Greece (97% of all sites).
    • All reported bathing water sites in Cyprus, Greece, Latvia, Luxembourg, Malta, Romania and Slovenia were of at least sufficient quality in 2018.
    • The three countries with the highest numbers of poor quality bathing water sites are Italy (89 bathing water sites or 1.6%), France (54 sites or 1.6%) and Spain (50 sites or 2.2%). In comparison with 2017, the number of poor quality bathing water sites in France decreased (from 80 in 2017 to 54 in 2018), while there was an increase in poor quality bathing waters in Italy (from 79 to 89) and in Spain (from 38 to 50).

    Country reports

    Interactive map on performance of each bathing site

    Bathing Water Directive

    EEA State of Bathing Water

    Bathing water quality

    Add A Comment
    Leave A Reply Cancel Reply

    You must be logged in to post a comment.

    nps
    • Website

    Related Content

    Fintevex

    Fintevex.com claims to deliver. But does it actually perform?

    Euro - ECB-Photo by Mika Baumeister on Unsplash

    Markets breathe easier as Trump hedges on Iran-Israel conflict – Euro currency news daily

    Ship porthole - Image by Herbert Aust from Pixabay

    The importance of manholes in shipbuilding and marine industry

    EU funding - Photo by Kaboompics.com on Pexels

    EP working group on NGO funding politically motivated and harmful to EU democracy

    Sponsor: WWF19 June 2025
    Investment - Photo by Anna Tarazevich on Pexels

    EU agrees on shorter settlement cycle for securities trading

    Trade front loader beside intermodal containers - Photo by Chanaka on Pexels

    MEPs seal deal with Council to simplify EU carbon leakage instrument

    LATEST EU NEWS
    Euro - ECB-Photo by Mika Baumeister on Unsplash

    Markets breathe easier as Trump hedges on Iran-Israel conflict – Euro currency news daily

    20 June 2025
    Investment - Photo by Anna Tarazevich on Pexels

    EU agrees on shorter settlement cycle for securities trading

    18 June 2025
    Trade front loader beside intermodal containers - Photo by Chanaka on Pexels

    MEPs seal deal with Council to simplify EU carbon leakage instrument

    18 June 2025
    Health research - Photo by National Cancer Institute on Unsplash

    EU awards EUR 721m funding for cutting-edge research

    17 June 2025
    mobile-phone-Smartphone - Image by Dariusz Sankowski from Pixabay

    Brussels proposes cheap calls for Ukrainians in EU from 2026

    17 June 2025

    Subscribe to EUbusiness Week

    Get the latest EU news

    CONTACT INFO

    • EUbusiness Ltd 117 High Street, Chesham Buckinghamshire, HP5 1DE United Kingdom
    • +44(0)20 8058 8232
    • service@eubusiness.com

    INFORMATION

    • About Us
    • Advertising
    • Contact Info

    Services

    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms
    • EU News

    SOCIAL MEDIA

    Facebook
    eubusiness.com © EUbusiness Ltd 2025

    Design and developed by : 

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.

    Sign In or Register

    Welcome Back!

    Login to your account below.

    Lost password?