At this time of year, when some may consider putting a toe into the water, it is reassuring to know that EU regulators spend so much time reviewing the quality of Europe's bathing water.
It is not known precisely how many good Europeans take a dip in the sea each day, but the numbers must be considerable because the public concern about the quality of seawater is very high. And so, one day, the European Commission decided there ought to be three categories of bathing water quality in order to set the standards.
One of the most important functions of the European Commission has become its detailed analysis of bathing water; known as The Annual Bathing Water Report. There are of course 'stringent guide values' and 'mandatory values' set up by Brussels HQ. Quite logically when testing seawater, they came up with 'excellent', 'good' and 'poor'. And, for the avoidance of confusion or misunderstanding, one of the Commission's famous directives was published, called The Bathing Water Directive.
LINGUISTICS CHALLENGE
But setting degrees of quality always has its problems: one swimmer's 'good' might be another swimmer's 'poor' (and vice versa). It seemed appropriate, therefore, after much consultation among bathing specialists to introduce a fourth category that would come somewhere between 'good' and 'poor' and this would be called 'sufficient' - which might mean: ok to swim in providing you don't swallow any water.
However, after further thought and statistical examination of the term 'sufficient', it was deemed that the word was insufficient - when applied to the quality of the seawater we like to swim in - as the category is, well, a bit vague. A report tells us -while both Commission and Parliament accepted this in order to see an overall improvement of the legislation, the Parliament adopted amendments to tighten the quality standards for the "sufficient" category.' While this tightening pleased many of us, the 1976 Bathing Water Directive clearly reflected only the state of knowledge and experience of the early 1970s, both technically as well as socially, because, since 1976, epidemiological knowledge has progressed and managerial methods have improved, we are told. Therefore, and in the course of time, and 'after a long process which required a final conciliation agreement between Council and Parliament', a New Bathing Water Directive called for the distasteful but necessarily 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'.
GOLD STAR
A condition of entry to EU membership requires that all EU member countries abide by the rules (i.e., directives on a huge range of topics); there has since been close scrutiny of the quality of the seawater we swim in, all around the coasts of Europe.
And where would you guess is the cleanest place to swim in seawater? Cyprus! Yes, whatever Turkey may say, Cyprus has a 99% positive hygiene standard, according to the most recent EU report, making Cyprus the cleanest bathing area in Europe. Much like a glowing school report, the Commission continues: 'This is the third year that Cyprus has reported data on bathing water quality in coastal areas. This is a remarkable effort, considering that Cyprus joined the EU only in 2004!' Well done, Cyprus. Next in the clean-sea category come Greece, Spain, Italy, and Ireland. In 2006 a total of 21,094 bathing areas were monitored.
FLAGGING BEHIND
Lithuania and Estonia have the dirtiest bathing water, according to the report, whilst Slovakia showed the lowest compliance with EU guidelines for freshwater areas, with only 22.4% of bathing sites up to the standards. Belgium, Luxembourg and the six new EU member states that provided data also scored low on the quality of bathing waters.
The Commission also reports 'some member states' delete dirty bathing sites from the list of designated bathing areas rather than clean them up, making them no longer subject to monitoring. Name them and shame them!
