EU accepts compromise on bathing water standards

摘要

WaterVoice has described as a 'mixed bag' the decisions of the European Parliament on tighter bathing water standards, following a recent vote in Strasbourg. MEPs approved the inclusion of an extra classification, 'sufficient', in addition to the proposals for poor, good and excellent classifications. WaterVoice had feared that deleting the 'sufficient' classification would have led to a twelvefold increase in the number of bathing waters classified as 'poor'. This could still happen, as MEPs voted to apply the 'sufficient' classification for a transitional period of eight years - which could see it disappear as early as 2013.