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Indicator Assessment
Coastal bathing water quality in the European Union, 1990-2011
Note: The figure shows the bathing water quality in different European countries over time: 1990, 7 EU Member States; 1991 to 1994, 12 EU Member States; 1995-96, 14 EU Member States; 1997 to 2003, 15 EU Member States; 2004, 21 EU Member States; 2005-06, 25 EU Member States; 2007 to 2011, 27 EU Member States. Five Member States (Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Luxembourg and Slovakia) have no coastal bathing waters. The quality classes under the New Bathing Water Directive (2006/7/EC) are jointed with compliance categories under the Bathing Water Directive (76/160/EEC).
Inland bathing water quality in the European Union, 1990-2011
Note: The figure shows the bathing water quality in different European countries over time: 1990, 7 EU Member States; 1991 to 1994, 12 EU Member States; 1995-96, 14 EU Member States; 1997 to 2003, 15 EU Member States; 2004, 21 EU Member States; 2005-06, 25 EU Member States; 2007 to 2011, 27 EU Member States. No inland bathing waters are reported from three Member States (Cyprus, Malta and Romania). The quality classes under the New Bathing Water Directive (2006/7/EC) are jointed with compliance categories under the Bathing Water Directive (76/160/EEC).
Percentage of European coastal bathing waters complying with mandatory values (or with at least sufficient quality) and meeting guide values (or with excellent quality) for the year 2011 by country
Note: Countries arranged by the percentage of compliance with mandatory values (or at least sufficient quality). Five Member States (Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Luxembourg and Slovakia) and Switzerland have no coastal bathing waters. The quality classes under the New Bathing Water Directive (2006/7/EC) are jointed with compliance categories under the Bathing Water Directive (76/160/EEC).
Percentage of European inland bathing waters complying with mandatory values (or with at least sufficient quality) and meeting guide values (or with excellent quality) for the year 2011 by country
Note: Countries arranged by the percentage of compliance with mandatory values (or at least sufficient quality). No inland bathing waters are reported from three Member States (Cyprus, Malta and Romania) and Montenegro. The quality classes under the New Bathing Water Directive (2006/7/EC) are jointed with compliance categories under the Bathing Water Directive (76/160/EEC).
Percentage of European coastal bathing waters complying with mandatory values (or with at least sufficient quality) and meeting guide values (or with excellent quality) for the year 2011 by sea region
Note: Sea regions arranged by the percentage of compliance with mandatory values (or at least sufficient quality). EU Member States, Croatia and Montenegro. Five Member States (Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Luxembourg and Slovakia) and Switzerland have no coastal bathing waters. The quality classes under the New Bathing Water Directive (2006/7/EC) are jointed with compliance categories under the Bathing Water Directive (76/160/EEC).
Percentage of European inland bathing waters complying with mandatory values (or with at least sufficient quality) and meeting guide values (or with excellent quality) for the year 2011 by sea region
Note: Sea regions arranged by the percentage of compliance with mandatory values (or at least sufficient quality). EU Member States, Croatia and Switzerland. No inland bathing waters are reported from three Member States (Cyprus, Malta and Romania) and Montenegro. The quality classes under the New Bathing Water Directive (2006/7/EC) are jointed with compliance categories under the Bathing Water Directive (76/160/EEC).
Key assessment
Introduction to Bathing Water Directives
The first European bathing water legislation, the ‘Bathing Water Directive’ was adopted in 1975 and came into force in 1976. Its main objectives are to safeguard public health and protect the aquatic environment in coastal and inland areas from pollution. Bathing waters covered by the Bathing Water Directive can be coastal waters or inland waters (rivers, natural lakes, reservoirs and ponds) in which bathing is explicitly authorised by the competent authorities of each Member State, or not prohibited and traditionally practiced by a large number of bathers. Swimming pools and waters for therapeutic purposes are not covered. The period during which bathers can be expected in bathing areas depends largely on local bathing rules and weather conditions. A bathing season can also vary within a Member State. In the European Union it usually runs from the end of May until the end of September. New European legislation on bathing water was adopted in 2006. The ‘New Bathing Water Directive’ updates the measures of the 1975 legislation and simplifies its management and surveillance methods. The new directive requires that EU Member States comply with even stricter requirements and implement effective management of bathing water, public participation and better information dissemination.
Member States have until December 2014 to achieve full implementation of the new bathing water directive. As such Member States could still choose to report either under the old or new bathing water directives until the 2011 bathing season; from the 2012 bathing season reporting under the new directive will become obligatory.
Assessing bathing water quality under the new bathing water directive requires a data set of three or four consecutive years instead of a single year's result as for the old directive. While those data are being compiled, the transition period rules are applied. Comparison of bathing water quality by country is done with integration of three types of assessments. For the 2011 season, bathing water quality has been assessed under the new bathing water directive in 16 European countries. Only three countries - Czech Republic, Romania and the United Kingdom - are still assessed under the old bathing water directive. Eleven countries are assessed under the transition period rules.
Results
See also EEA report: European bathing water quality in 2011
European Union (Figure 1-2)
Europeans have a huge diversity of beautiful beaches and bathing areas at their disposal. In 2011 the 27 EU Member States reported 21 031 bathing waters, of which more than two thirds (69 %) are coastal bathing waters.
Coastal bathing waters
Some 93.1 % of coastal bathing waters achieved at least sufficient quality or complied with the mandatory values (Fig. 1). This was an increase of 1.0 percentage points compared to 2010. Some 80.1 % of coastal bathing waters complied with the more stringent guide values during the 2011 bathing season. The proportion of coastal bathing waters classified as excellent (or compliant with the more stringent guide values) increased by 0.6 percentage points in 2011, compared to 2010.
The EU Member States reported 212 coastal bathing waters (1.5 %) with poor quality or not in compliance with mandatory values in 2011. That represented a 0.3 percentage point increase from 2010. In 1990, 9.2 % of bathing waters did not comply with the bathing water directives' provisions and by 2011 this had fallen to just 1.5 %. There were 139 coastal bathing waters closed in 2011, representing 1.0 % of all coastal bathing waters. This was a 0.7 percentage point increase from 2010 but a 1.3 percentage point decrease from 2009. The remaining coastal bathing waters were insufficiently sampled, not sampled, or newly opened and not yet assessed under the new directive.
Compliance with mandatory values increased from just under 80 % in 1990 to over 95 % in 1999, and has remained quite stable since then. Compliance with guide values likewise rose from 68 % to over 89 % in 2003 and was then nearly constant but dropped below 80 % in 2010. The trend is now positive again.
Inland bathing waters
In 2011, 89.9 % of inland bathing waters in the European Union had sufficient quality (or were compliant with the mandatory values) during the bathing season (Fig. 2). This was a 0.3 percentage point decrease from 2010, but a 0.5 percentage point increase from 2009. The number of inland bathing waters with excellent quality (or complying with the more stringent guide values) increased by 9.9 percentage points compared to 2010, reaching 70.4 %.
Only 2.4 % of inland bathing areas in the European Union had poor quality (or did not comply with mandatory values) in 2011. This represented a 0.4 percentage point decrease compared to 2010. The share of bathing waters that were banned or closed during the bathing season in 2011 was 1.0 %, a decrease of 0.6 percentage points in comparison to 2010 and a decrease of 3.7 percentage points in comparison to 2009. Out of 6 493 inland bathing waters in the EU, 429 (6.6 %) were classified as insufficiently sampled (meaning more than 41 days between sampling dates), not sampled or not yet possible to assess under the new bathing water directive. That compared to 351 such inland bathing waters in 2010 and 185 in 2009.
The overall quality of inland bathing areas in the EU has markedly improved since 1990 but with greater variations than coastal bathing waters. In 1990, some 52 % of inland bathing areas complied with mandatory values. This proportion reached 90 % by the early 2000s and decreased slightly afterwards before recovering to 92 % in 2008. Similarly, the rate of compliance with guide values rose from 36.4 % in 1990 to 68 % in 2003. In 2010, the percentage of inland bathing waters complying with guide values dropped to 60.5 %. In 2011, the quality increased by 9.9 percentage points, reaching 70.4 % - the highest level so far recorded. Furthermore, the number of inland bathing areas not complying with mandatory values decreased from 11.9 % in 1990 to 2.4 % in 2011, which constituted the lowest level to date.
Assessment by countries (Figure 3-4)
See also WISE interactive map: State of bathing waters
Coastal bathing waters
A total of 24 countries reported coastal bathing waters in 2011. Italy (4 902), Greece (2 149), France (2 029), Spain (1 927), Denmark (1 012), Croatia (906) and the United Kingdom (605) have the highest number of coastal bathing waters. Countries with less than 50 coastal bathing waters are Romania (49), Belgium (42), Latvia (32), Estonia (27), Slovenia (21) and Lithuania (16). There are no coastal bathing waters in Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Luxembourg, Slovakia and Switzerland.
Croatia, Malta, Slovenia, Romania, Lithuania, Poland and Belgium achieved at least sufficient quality or complied with the mandatory values in all their coastal bathing waters in 2011 (Fig. 3). At least sufficient or mandatory water quality was below the average of the European Union (93.1 %) in six countries. These were Estonia (92.6 %), Italy (91.9 %), Denmark (91.5 %), Finland (90.6 %), France (85.7 %) and Sweden (79.1 %).
In Cyprus (99.1 %), Croatia (97.8 %), Malta (97.7 %), Slovenia (95.2 %) and Greece (94.1 %) more than 90 % of bathing waters achieved excellent quality or met the guide values. The excellent or guide water quality was below the average of the European Union (80.1 %) in 11 countries. Countries with less than 60 % of coastal bathing waters having excellent quality or meeting the guide values were Sweden (55.0 %), Bulgaria (50.6 %), Estonia (48.1 %), Latvia (43.8 %) and Belgium (38.1 %).
Inland bathing waters
A total of 26 countries reported inland bathing waters on lakes and rivers in 2011. Germany and France have the highest number of inland bathing waters (1 938 and 1 304 respectively). The other countries with more than 250 inland bathing waters are Italy (647), the Netherlands (603), Switzerland (352) and Austria (267). Countries with less than 20 inland bathing waters are Latvia (14), the United Kingdom (12), Ireland (nine), Greece (six), Croatia and Bulgaria (both four). The reasons for such low numbers vary by countries. There are no inland bathing waters reported from Cyprus, Malta, Montenegro and Romania.
In Estonia, Croatia, Greece, Ireland, the United Kingdom, Slovenia and Bulgaria all inland bathing waters achieved at least sufficient quality or complied with the mandatory values in 2011 (Fig. 4). At least sufficient or mandatory water quality was lower than the average of the European Union (89.9 %) in 14 countries. Countries with less than 80 % of inland bathing waters having at least sufficient quality or complying with the mandatory values were Belgium (77.2 %), Spain (75.1 %), Hungary (67.1 %), Luxembourg (55.0 %) and Switzerland (40.3 %).
As with the coastal bathing waters, the differences among countries in regard to guide values are higher than in regard to mandatory values. In Estonia (92.9 %), Germany (90.2 %), Austria (83.5 %), Denmark (83.1 %) and Finland (80.3 %) more than 80 % of inland bathing waters achieved excellent quality or met the guide values. The excellent or guide water quality was lower than the average of the European Union (70.4 %) in 17 countries. Countries with 50 % or less inland bathing waters having excellent quality or meeting the guide values were Slovenia (50.0 %), Luxembourg (50.0 %), Spain (44.9 %), the Netherlands (44.4 %), Switzerland (37.2 %) and Bulgaria (25.0 %).
Assessment by sea regions (Figure 5-6): EU27 plus Croatia, Montenegro and Switzerland
Coastal bathing waters
The majority of coastal bathing waters are located on the Mediterranean Sea coasts (9 989), representing almost two thirds of all reported coastal bathing waters in Europe. The number of coastal bathing waters is 2 519 on the Atlantic Ocean coasts and 1 643 on the Greater North Sea coasts. This number is much lower for the Baltic Sea and the Black Sea coasts (1 218 and 138 respectively).
The Black Sea (97.8 %), the Mediterranean Sea (95.5 %) and the Greater North Sea coasts (94.3 %) performed above average in achieving at least sufficient quality or complying with the mandatory values compared to the EU average of 93.1 % and the European average (including Croatia and Montenegro) of 93.5 % in 2011 (Fig. 5). Some 92.4 % of coastal bathing waters on the Baltic Sea coasts and 85.9 % of coastal bathing waters on the Atlantic Ocean coasts achieved at least sufficient quality or complied with the mandatory values.
Some 87.9 % of coastal bathing waters on the Mediterranean Sea coasts achieved excellent quality or met the guide values compared to the EU average of 80.1 % and the European average (including Croatia and Montenegro) of 81.1 %. The excellent or guide water quality was below average on the Atlantic Ocean (72.4 %), the Baltic Sea (68.3 %), the Greater North Sea (64.8 %) and the Black Sea coasts (63.8 %).
Inland bathing waters
The Greater North Sea catchment area covers the highest number of inland bathing waters in Europe (2 725), accounting for 40 % of all reported inland bathing waters in Europe. There are 1 425 bathing waters in the Mediterranean Sea catchment area. The number of inland bathing waters is 939 in the Black Sea, 897 in the Baltic Sea and 860 in the Atlantic Ocean catchment areas.
The Baltic Sea (89.6 %), the Black Sea (88.7 %) and the Mediterranean Sea catchment areas (87.6 %) performed above average in achieving at least sufficient quality or complying with the mandatory values compared to the European average (including Croatia and Switzerland) of 87.4 % in 2011 (Fig. 6). Some 86.7 % of inland bathing waters in the Atlantic Ocean catchment area and 86.3 % of inland bathing waters in the Greater North Sea catchment area had at least sufficient or mandatory water quality. A high percentage of insufficiently sampled or not sampled bathing waters in Switzerland (59.1 %) lowers the European average compared to the EU average of 89.9 %.
As with the coastal bathing waters, the differences among sea regions in regard to guide values are higher compared to the mandatory values. The Black Sea (78.3 %), the Baltic Sea (78.0 %) and the Greater North Sea catchment areas (69.2 %) achieved excellent quality or compliance with the guide values above the European average (including Croatia and Switzerland) of 68.7 %. The Black Sea and the Baltic Sea catchment areas also performed above the average of the European Union of 70.4 %. The excellent or guide water quality was the lowest in the Mediterranean Sea (65.4 %) and the Atlantic Ocean catchment areas (52.4 %).
The indicator describes the changes over time in the quality of identified bathing waters (inland and coastal) in EU in terms of compliance with standards for parameters introduced by the EU Bathing Water Directive (76/160/EEC) , i.e. microbiological parameters (total coliforms and faecal coliforms) and physicochemical parameters (mineral oils, surface-active substances and phenols), as well as in terms of meeting standards for parameters introduced by the New Bathing Water Directive (2006/7/EC), i.e. microbiological parameters (intestinal enterococci and Escherichia coli). The indicator also shows bathing water quality results in the European countries and European sea regions for the 2012 bathing season. The indicator is based on the annual reports made by Member States, as well as Croatia and Switzerland to the European Commission. Croatia (Member State from July 2013) is not included in EU average up to the 2012 season.
The data are expressed in terms of percentage of inland and coastal bathing waters complying with the mandatory values and guide values for microbiological and physicochemical parameters (assessment under the Bathing Water Directive (76/160/EEC) in previous years) and with the mandatory value for Escherichia coli and guide values for Escherichia coli and intestinal enterococci respectively (assessment during transition period). The data are also expressed in terms of percentage of inland and coastal bathing waters of excellent and at least sufficient quality (assessment under the New Bathing Water Directive (2006/7/EC)). In addition, Figure 1 and 2 show percentage of coastal and inland bathing waters per compliance category or quality class where all categories/classes are presented. The quality classes under the New Bathing Water Directive (2006/7/EC) are jointed with compliance categories under the Bathing Water Directive (76/160/EEC). Some bathing waters cannot be classified according to compliance or quality but are instead classified as closed, insufficiently sampled or not sampled, new or changes.
Under the Bathing Water Directive (76/160/EEC) Member States are required to designate coastal and inland bathing waters and to monitor the quality of the water throughout the bathing season. Bathing waters are designated where bathing is authorised by the competent authority and also where bathing is traditionally practised by a large number of bathers. The bathing season is then determined according to the period when there are the largest number of bathers (May to September in most European countries). The quality of the water has to be monitored fortnightly during the bathing season and also two weeks before. The sampling frequency may be reduced by a factor of two if the water quality gets a good rating for two previous consecutive years (compliance with mandatory or guide values). Annex 1 of the directive lists a number of parameters to be monitored but the focus has been on bacteriological quality. The directive sets both minimum standards (mandatory) and optimum standards (guide). For compliance with the directive, 95% of the samples must comply with the mandatory standards. To be classified as achieving guide values, 80% of the samples must comply with the total and faecal coliform standards and 90% with the standards for the other parameters.
On 24 October 2002, the Commission adopted the proposal for a revised Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning the Quality of Bathing Water COM(2002)581. The New Bathing Water Directive (2006/7/EC) entered into force on 24.3.2006. It applies to any element of surface water where the competent authority expects a large number of people to bathe and has not imposed a permanent bathing prohibition, or issued permanent advice against bathing, except for swimming pools and spa pools, confined waters subject to treatment or used for therapeutic purposes and artificially created confined waters separated from surface water and groundwater. The Directive makes use of only two bacteriological indicator parameters, but sets a higher health standard than the Directive 76/160/EC. Based on international epidemiological research and the experience with implementing the current Bathing Water and Water Framework Directives, the revised Directive provides long-term quality assessment and management methods in order to reduce both monitoring frequency and monitoring costs. It creates four quality categories for bathing waters - 'poor', 'sufficient', 'good' and 'excellent'. The classification of bathing water quality is determined on the basis of a four-year trend instead of a single year's result, as was the case for the Bathing Water Directive. Member States have until December 2014 to achieve full implementation of the New Bathing Water Directive. As such Member States could choose to report either under the Bathing Water Directive or the New Bathing Water Directive until the 2011 bathing season. From the 2012 bathing season reporting under the New Bathing Water Directive becomes obligatory since the first classification according to the requirements of this Directive shall be completed by the end of the 2015 bathing season (using data for the period 2012-2015). Member States must take one sample at each bathing place shortly before the start of the bathing season and continue sampling until the end of the season, with at least one sample per month for Escherichia coli and intestinal enterococci.
The New Bathing Water Directive lays down provisions for more sophisticated monitoring and classification of bathing water. It also provides for extensive public information and participation in line with the Århus Convention as well as for comprehensive and modern management measures:
• The Directive requires Member States to draw up a management plan for each site to minimise risks to bathers based on an assessment of the sources of contamination that are likely to affect it. Users of the site should be actively involved in developing the management plan. Where bathing sites have a history of poor water quality, preventive measures should be taken to close the bathing area when such conditions are forecasted. If the quality standards are not respected, remedial measures must be taken.
• Information on a bathing site’s quality classification, the results of water quality monitoring, the site’s management plan and other relevant information is to be made readily available to the public, both through displays at the site and through the media and internet.
• While the Directive 76/160/EEC requires regular monitoring of 19 pollutants or other parameters (for example water colour) the revised Directive reduces this list to just two microbiological indicators of faecal contamination, E. Coli and intestinal enterococci. This simplification reflects recognition that faecal matter, for instance due to inadequate sewage treatment and pollution from animal waste, is the primary health threat to bathers.
• The classification of water quality at a bathing site is determined on the basis of a four year trend instead of a single year’s result, as was the case for the Bathing Water Directive. This means that the classification is less susceptible to bad weather or one-off incidents. Where water quality is consistently good over a four year period the frequency of sampling may be reduced, thereby cutting costs. It provides for the assessment of water quality on the basis of the set of water quality data compiled during the bathing seasons.
• The Directive requires "bathing profiles" to be drawn up describing the characteristics of the bathing water and identifying sources of pollution. The presence of pollution may result in needing to regularly review the status of the bathing, ban bathing there if needed and inform the public.
• To ease the monitoring burden for Member States the Directive reduces monitoring frequencies if the quality of bathing areas proves to be constantly "good" or "excellent".
All bathing waters to comply with mandatory values in Bathing Water Directive (76/160/EEC).
Increase in number of bathing waters complying with guide values in Bathing Water Directive (76/160/EEC).
All bathing waters are at least ‘sufficient’ by the end of the 2015 bathing season in New Bathing Water Directive (2006/7/EC).
Increase the number of bathing waters classified as ‘excellent’ or ‘good’ in New Bathing Water Directive (2006/7/EC).
No related policy documents have been specified
Bathing Water Directive (76/160/EEC)
The parameters to be taken into account for assessment according to the assessment rules of the Directive 76/160/EEC are microbiological (1 Total coliforms, 2 Faecal coliforms) and physico-chemical (8 Mineral oils, 9 Surface-active substances reacting with methylene blue, 10 Phenols (phenol indices)). The assessment under this Directive was done up to the 2011 bathing season (three countries still reported and being assessed under this Directive) since reporting under the Directive 2006/7/EC becomes obligatory from the 2012 season on.
The results are classified in the following categories:
Assessment during the transition period - reporting under the New Bathing Water Directive (2006/7/EC) and assessment according to the limit values of the Bathing Water Directive (76/160/EEC)
Assessing bathing water quality under Directive 2006/7/EC requires a data set of four consecutive years. While those data are being compiled, the rules for transition period are applied. This means that the classification of bathing waters is defined on the basis of concentrations of intestinal enterococci and Escherichia coli reported under Directive 2006/7/EC. The limit values for the classification are taken from the Directive 76/160/EEC. The parameter intestinal enterococci is evaluated according to the guide value for the faecal streptococci parameter given in Directive 76/160/EEC. The parameter Escherichia coli is evaluated according to the mandatory and guide values for the parameter faecal coliforms given in Directive 76/160/EEC.
The results are classified in the following categories:
The frequency of sampling is set out in Annex IV of the Directive 2006/7/EC. Including a sample to be taken shortly before the start of the bathing season, the minimum number of samples taken per bathing season is four. However, only three samples are sufficient when the bathing season does not exceed eight weeks or the region is subject to special geographical constraints. Sampling dates are to be distributed throughout the bathing season, with the interval between sampling dates never exceeding one month.
One pre-season sample should be available and the interval between sampling dates in 2012 should never exceed 35 days, provided that the next sampling is done according to the monitoring calendar.
The sampling frequency rules applied in previous years are described in annual European and national bathing water reports for previous seasons. The previous reports are available at the European Environment Agency’s bathing water website (http://www.eea.europa.eu/themes/water/status-and-monitoring/state-of-bathing-water).
New Bathing Water Directive (2006/7/EC)
When four consecutive years of samples of intestinal enterococci and Escherichia coli for bathing water are available, the assessment is done according to assessment rules of the Directive 2006/7/EC.
Coastal and inland bathing waters are classified as 'excellent', 'good', 'sufficient' and 'poor' quality. The assessment is based on a percentile evaluation and defines three different standards separately for inland and coastal bathing waters. The standards for excellent and good quality are based on a 95-percentile evaluation; the standards for sufficient quality are based on a 90-percentile evaluation. Bathing waters not meeting the standards for sufficient quality are classified as poor. Some bathing waters cannot be classified according to their quality but are instead classified as 'closed' (bathing water is closed temporarily or throughout the 2012 season and a complete set of data is not available), 'new' (bathing water is newly identified and classification not yet possible), 'insufficiently sampled' (a pre-season sample is missing, sampling frequency is not satisfied or a set of data is not complete) or 'changes' (bathing water is not new and classification not yet possible since a set of monitoring data is incomplete).
The frequency of sampling is set out in Annex IV of the Directive. Including a sample to be taken shortly before the start of the bathing season, the minimum number of samples taken per bathing season is four. However, only three samples are sufficient when the bathing season does not exceed eight weeks or the region is subject to special geographical constraints. Sampling dates are to be distributed throughout the bathing season, with the interval between sampling dates never exceeding one month.
The assessment provisions of the Directive 2006/7/EC are transformed into the following technical rules: a) one pre-season sample should be available; b) the interval between sampling dates in 2012 should never exceed 35 days, provided that the next sampling is done according to the monitoring calendar; c) the yearly number of samples in the previous years should be four or three if bathing season does not exceed eight weeks or the region is subject to special geographical constraints. Furthermore, the number of samples for the assessment period should be at least 16 or 12 if season duration is less than eight weeks or the region is subject to special geographical constraints.
Hungary grouped 54 % of the bathing waters (124 out of 232) into 44 groups for the 2012 bathing season. Therefore, the assessment of bathing water quality in 2012 is done by groups. The samples obtained during the season from any of the bathing waters in a group were treated as one set of samples for the group. The classification of bathing waters in a group is done on the basis of this sample set.
The sampling frequency rules applied in previous years are described in annual European and national bathing water reports for previous seasons. The previous reports are available at the European Environment Agency’s bathing water website (http://www.eea.europa.eu/themes/water/status-and-monitoring/state-of-bathing-water).
No gaps are filled.
No methodology references available.
There are differences in how countries have interpreted and implemented the directive leading to differences in the representativeness of bathing waters included in terms of recreational water use.
The EU has expanded during the life of the Directive from 12 countries in 1992 to 28 at present. The time series is thus is not consistent in terms of geographic coverage. The new EU Member States have reported on the quality of their bathing waters since 2004 or 2005 (EU-10), 2007 (Bulgaria and Romania) and 2009 (Croatia). Croatia (Member State from July 2013) is not included in EU average up to the 2012 season. Switzerland has reported on the quality of their bathing waters since 2009 and Montenegro reported for 2010 and 2011. No allowance is made for differences between the years in the number of (EU) countries reporting, and the numbers of identified bathing waters.
Human enteric viruses are the most likely pathogens responsible for waterborne diseases from recreational water use but detection methods are complex and costly for routine monitoring, and so the main parameters analysed for compliance with the Directive are indicator organisms; total and faecal coliforms. Compliance with the mandatory standards and guide levels for these indicator organisms does not therefore guarantee that there is no risk to human health.
The Directive 2006/7/EC reduces the number of parameters from 19 to 2 key microbiological parameters, complemented by visual inspection such as algae bloom, and oil.The parameters used for setting the standards were reviewed and streamlined, focusing on the most robust microbiological indicators which are the most relevant for human health. Parameters are based on the latest scientific evidence.
The new parameters are the following:
Other microbiological parameters such as total coliforms and enteroviruses were removed because according to the latest scientific evidence they were not considered to be the best indicators for assessing bathing water quality. The choice of microbiological parameters is based on available scientific evidence provided by epidemiological studies conducted by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and health institutes in Germany, France and Netherlands.
For references, please go to https://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/indicators/bathing-water-quality/bathing-water-quality-assessment-published-4 or scan the QR code.
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