Cyprus achieved the highest ranking in Europe for the quality of its bathing waters in 2023, with Greece securing fourth place, according to an assessment released on Tuesday by the European Environment Agency (EEA) in partnership with the European Commission.
In Cyprus, 97.6 percent of the bathing waters surveyed received an ‘excellent’ rating. The survey included 123 coastal sites, from which 1,150 samples were collected. The EEA assesses bathing water quality based on two microbiological parameters defined in the Bathing Water Directive: Escherichia coli and intestinal enterococci.
Agriculture Minister Maria Panayiotou highlighted the importance of these results, stating, “The exceptional quality of swimming waters in Cyprus is significant not only for swimmers’ health and the environment but also for the island’s economy, which is closely linked to the quality of our seas and tourism.”
Panayiotou credited this success to the collaboration between the environmental department, public health services, the state laboratory, and local authorities, who are responsible for implementing the Bathing Water Directive.
Greece, with 95.8 percent of its 1,731 surveyed beaches rated as excellent, ranked fourth in Europe, following Cyprus, Austria (96.9 percent), and Croatia (96.7 percent).
In 2023, the majority of bathing water sites in Europe met the EU’s highest “excellent” quality standards, with 85 percent of Europe’s popular bathing waters achieving this rating. Additionally, 96 percent of all officially identified bathing waters in the EU met the minimum quality standards, with only 1.5 percent rated as ‘poor’.
The assessment provides valuable information on safe bathing sites in Europe, focusing on the monitoring of bacteria that can cause serious illness, rather than general water quality.
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