Figure 1. Proportion of bathing waters classified as excellent quality in 2022 (in the EU Member States, Albania and Switzerland)

The assessment covers 21,973 bathing water sites in Europe, which were reported on to the EEA for the 2022 season. In the 27 EU Member States (EU-27), a total of 21,658 bathing water sites were reported on (Austria: 260, Belgium: 128, Bulgaria: 96, Croatia: 936, Cyprus: 120, Czechia: 156, Denmark: 1,039, Estonia: 65, Finland: 303, France: 3,370, Germany: 2,292, Greece: 1,682, Hungary: 279, Ireland: 148, Italy: 5,529, Latvia: 58, Lithuania: 121, Luxembourg: 17, Malta: 87, the Netherlands: 740, Poland: 708, Portugal: 666, Romania: 50, Slovakia: 32, Slovenia: 47, Spain: 2,268 and Sweden: 461). Outside the EU-27, 315 bathing water sites were reported on (Albania: 119, Switzerland: 196). Only 78.0% of bathing waters in Poland were assessed for their quality, which explains the low proportion of sites classified as having excellent water quality in this country. The majority of these sites were newly identified and complete sets of samples, which would allow an assessment compliant with BWD requirements, were not available for classification.