Press release
Published: 10 Jun
2010
Clean bathing waters are vital for key economic
sectors such as tourism and for plant and
animal life. The annual bathing water report
presented by the European Commission and
the European Environment Agency shows that
96 % of coastal bathing areas and 90 % of
bathing sites in rivers and lakes complied
with minimum standards in 2009. It also
describes where to obtain detailed and up-to-date
information on bathing sites.
Environment Commissioner
Janez Potocnik said, 'Over the last thirty
years, EU and national legislation has significantly
improved the quality of Europe's bathing
waters but our work does not end here. Despite
our decade-long track record of high quality,
we need to keep up the effort constantly
to both improve and maintain what we have
achieved.'
Professor Jacqueline
McGlade, Executive Director of the European
Environment Agency, added, 'Further improvement
to Europe's bathing water quality requires
citizen involvement. This means, first and
foremost, finding out and understanding
the current state of our environment and
then demanding cleaner water from relevant
authorities. Our web-based tools provide
citizens easy access to environmental information
as well as a platform to voice their observations.'
Efforts to improve the
quality of bathing waters should be seen
in the context of Europe's efforts to achieve
good ecological and environmental status
in accordance with the EU Water and Marine
Framework Directives.
2009 results confirm
a long-term upward trend
Of the 20 000 bathing areas monitored throughout
the European Union in 2009, two-thirds were
on the coast and the rest were at rivers
and lakes. Compliance with mandatory values
(minimum quality requirements) at coastal
sites increased from 80 % in 11000 to 96
% in 2009. For inland waters, the increase
was even greater, rising from 52 % to 90
%.
Between 2008 and 2009
there was a slight deterioration in the
number of bathing waters meeting minimum
standards, with reductions of less than
1 percentage point (pp) for coastal sites
and 3 pps for inland bathing waters. Compliance
with the more stringent 'guide values' between
2008 and 2009 increased by slightly less
than 1 pp for coastal sites to reach 89
% but decreased by less than 3 pps for inland
waters to 71 %. Such annual fluctuations
are not unusual by the standards of recent
years.
Almost all the coastal
bathing sites in Cyprus, France, Greece
and Portugal complied with the more stringent
guide values [1]. Only 2 % of EU coastal
bathing sites were banned in 2009, mostly
in Italy. Although inland bathing sites
show greater variation in water quality,
a large majority of the inland sites in
Finland, France, Germany and Sweden also
complied with guide values.
Fourteen Member States
monitoring under the new Bathing Water Directive
To determine their quality, bathing waters
are tested against a number of physical,
chemical and microbiological parameters.
Member States must comply with the mandatory
values set out in the Bathing Water Directive
[2] but may choose instead to adhere to
the stricter (non-binding) guide values.
In 2006 a new Bathing
Water Directive [3] took effect, which updated
the parameters and monitoring provisions
in line with the latest scientific knowledge.
The new Directive places greater emphasis
on providing information to the public on
the quality of bathing areas. Member States
have until 2015 to implement the new Directive
fully but fourteen Member States (Cyprus,
Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Hungary,
Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the
Netherlands, Slovakia, Spain and Sweden)
already monitored their bathing areas during
the 2009 bathing season according to the
new Directive’s requirements .
+ More
Take a look at your
water environment
Document Actions
Published: 23 Jun 2010
What are the nutrient levels in your coastal
waters or nearby lake? Do you live in an
area where urban waste water treatment fails
to meet the EU requirements? The European
Environment Agency (EEA) provides the answers
through its interactive maps, which have
been updated with new water quality data.
Themes
Water Excessive levels of nutrients such
as nitrogen and phosphorus in water bodies
can cause algal blooms and an associated
loss in aquatic life. In addition, their
presence in drinking water requires expensive
treatment. Agriculture and waste water are
the key sources of nutrients in water bodies.
The European Water Data
Centre, managed by the EEA, presents data
on water quality and quantity, and nutrient
releases to the water environment. It provides
a single entry point for European datasets
and indicators on water, including interactive
maps most of them updated with 2008 data.
Some maps provide an
overview of the water quality in European
rivers, lakes, groundwater and coastal waters.
Local data can also be retrieved through
a zoom function. As a new feature, the areas
designated as sensitive according to Article
5 of the EU Urban Waste Water Directive
are displayed together with information
on the level of urban waste water treatment
undertaken at each treatment plant.
