“I WOULD go swimming in almost every area of the European coast,” EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas told a news conference in Brussels yesterday, to underline that the quality of bathing water is in general very good.
According to the 2004 annual bathing water report, 96.7 per cent of Europe’s coastal sites met EU standards, but the situation in one in 10 inland bathing areas, such as lakes and rivers, has worsened.
Despite being a sun and sea holiday destination, however, Cyprus is not doing as well as other member states, such as Greece, which is “excellent”, Dimas said.
According to the report, Cyprus has 100 sites in total, all of them coastal, while compliance with both mandatory and guide values was “relatively good” at 86 per cent and 81 per cent respectively. Bathing was not prohibited at any site, but the percentage of areas insufficiently sampled was a 9 per cent high.
The situation on Cyprus’ coastline can be assessed only when compared to other member states, which are also popular tourist destinations because of their sea. There was 94.7 per cent compliance for mandatory values in Italy, 97.5 per cent in Portugal, 95.67 per cent in France, 98.9 per cent in Spain and a record 99.9 per cent in Greece.
Water quality in the new member states was somewhat lower than in the EU15, but, as the Greek Commissioner stressed, this was also the case in several of the old states until several years after the EU bathing water directive came into force.
The Commission noted that the quality of water in inland bathing sites dropped markedly to 89.4 per cent from the 92.3 per cent it was in 2003, while compliance rate in the new member states was only 46 per cent.
Dimas expressed his concern at the fact that member states take some sites out of the list or ban bathing there if they are polluted, which does not solve the problem. He underlined governments must take action to reinstate good standards and said the Commission would take it up with them, and, if they did not comply, the EU’s executive may have to use measures against them.
The Environment Commissioner was positive towards the revised bathing waters directive now before the European Parliament for a second reading, saying it would update quality standards and modernize requirements.
Cyprus is one of the six new member states that have for the first time given the Commission data on bathing areas, for 2004. From the 100 sites it submitted, there was no site where bathing was prohibited and five areas not respecting the minimum mandatory quality standards, of which three were in the Ayios Tychonas area. There were nine coastal areas where waters were not monitored sufficiently and five areas meeting the minimum mandatory quality standards but not the stricter recommended standards.
n The report covers 19,965 bathing areas in the EU 25, with complete results for 21 member states. More information on the quality of bathing water can be found on the website: http://www.europa.eu.int/water/water-bathing/report.html
