Europe’s bathing waters remain safe
The vast majority of bathing water sites in Europe met the European Union's most stringent ‘excellent’ bathing quality standards in 2023, according to the latest annual bathing water assessment published today. This represents 85% of Europe’s popular bathing waters. As much as 96% of all officially identified bathing waters in the EU met the minimum quality standards, with only 1.5% rated as ‘poor'.
The assessment, put together by the European Environment Agency (EEA) in cooperation with the European Commission, highlights where swimmers can find safe bathing sites in Europe this summer. It focuses specifically on safety for bathing, through monitoring of bacteria which can cause serious illness in people, rather than general water quality.
The highest share of excellent bathing waters is found in Greece, Croatia, Cyprus and Austria. In Belgium, Bulgaria, Luxembourg, Malta, Austria and Romania, all officially identified bathing waters met at least the minimum quality standard in 2023.
