Greece is in the top positions among the European Union Member States in terms of swimming water quality, according to a report by the European Environment Agency (EEA) and the European Commission.

In our country, 1,731 bathing areas were monitored, of which 1,659 were classified as “excellent quality”, 17 as “good quality”, 4 of them as “moderate quality”, while no bathing area, both in coastal areas and on the mainland, was classified as “poor quality”.

According to this report, the highest percentage of excellent bathing waters in the EU is found in Greece, Croatia, Cyprus and Austria. In Belgium, Bulgaria, Luxembourg, Luxembourg, Malta, Austria and Romania, all officially recognised bathing waters met at least the minimum quality standards in 2023.

Only 1.5% of EU swimming water is of “poor quality”

Overall, at EU level, 85.4% of popular bathing waters were classified as “excellent quality”, while 96% of all officially recognised bathing waters in the EU met the minimum quality standards, with only 1.5% classified as “poor quality”

The bathing quality of coastal waters is generally better than that of inland bathing waters (rivers, lakes, etc.). In 2023, 89% of coastal bathing sites classified across the EU were of excellent quality, compared to just under 79% of inland bathing waters.

In contrast, most bathing waters classified as ‘poor quality’ were recorded proportionally in Albania, Sweden and the Netherlands.