Quality of EU's bathing waters remains high

摘要

Nearly 95% of coastal bathing areas and 89% of bathing sites in rivers and lakes in the EU complied with mandatory water quality standards under Directive 76/160/EEC in 2007. The annual bathing water report, published by the European Commission on 2 June, states that in spite of a slight downward trend observed for coastal bathing areas, the quality of bathing water remains high in the EU. The deterioration does not seem to surprise Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas, who says it is due to an upward shift in monitoring, since fewer bathing sites were removed by member states from the list of tested sites in 2007 (often due to poor water quality). In 2007, 21,368 bathing sites were tested, including 14,551 in coastal areas and 6,797 in inland waters. On the whole, the number of bathing sites meeting the minimum quality standards remained stable compared to 2006.