Dive into the summer: the water’s safe!
Be it a lake in Finland, an Aegean island or the Copenhagen harbour, you probably plan on taking a dip this summer. But is the water safe? According to the latest European bathing water assessment for the 2024 bathing season, it most likely is! The report found that over 85% of monitored locations met the European Union’s ‘excellent’ bathing water quality standards last year. And at least, 96% of all officially identified bathing waters in the EU met the minimum quality standards.
The report assessed over 22,000 bathing water sites across all 27 EU countries, plus Albania and Switzerland. In five countries — Cyprus, Bulgaria, Greece, Austria and Croatia — 95% or more of bathing waters were of excellent quality. Only 1.5% of the EU’s bathing waters were found to be of poor quality.
Bathing water quality at beaches across Europe has improved significantly over the past few decades, largely thanks to EU policies and actions by EU countries. The EU’s Bathing Water Directive requires systematic bacteriological monitoring of EU bathing waters and EU countries have invested heavily in urban wastewater treatment plants.
Europe's bathing waters are much safer thanks to these improvements in wastewater treatment. Bacteria Escherichia coli – or E. coli – and intestinal enterococci can pollute our bathing water and pose a risk to human health due to the potential presence of pathogens. Usually, these bacteria stem from untreated wastewater or manure that end up in bathing waters, for example, following heavy rain.
Although most of Europe’s bathing waters are in excellent condition, pollution of surface and groundwater remains significant and may be exacerbated by the changing climate. Improving water resilience for people and for the environment in coming years will be key.
For more information
European bathing water quality in 2024
Interactive map - State of bathing waters in 2024
