In 2010, 21,063 points were monitored in the European Union, 70% of which are coastal waters. Almost half of the coastal waters monitored are in Italy (33.7%) and Greece (14.8%) and almost half of the inland water bodies are in Germany (29.4%) and France (20.1%). The largest number of monitored bathing waters are in Italy (about 5,500) and France (about 3,300).

Altogether 25 countries monitor inland water bodies and in five of them, including Greece, the number of monitored inland water bodies falls under 15.

According to the 2010 results, 92.1% of coastal bathing waters and 90.2% of inland water bodies in the EU meet the minimum quality requirements set by European directives (Figure 1). In recent years, the quality of bathing water has been slightly deteriorated, but still more than nine in ten bathing waters meet minimum quality standards. Bathing waters determined as non-compliant were 1.2% for coastal and 2.8% for inland bathing waters. Deterioration of quality shows that further actions must be carried out to ensure that water quality will continually improve.

The overall quality of bathing waters in the EU has improved significantly since 1990. At the same time the number of coastal bathing waters which do not comply with the provisions of the Directives has increased.

Greece monitors the quality of bathing water since 1990 and the results are shown in the following figures for coastal and inland bathing waters respectively.

Coastal bathing water quality

Inland bathing water quality

The diagrams demonstrate that the Greek rate of compliance even with the stricter guide values ​​of Directive 76/160/EEC (blue line) exceeds 94%.

Inland water bodies show sharp quality fluctuations due to the small number of monitored points (only 6 points). However, Greece conforms since1998 for inland water bodies as well with the mandatory values ​​of Directive 76/160/EEC by 100% (green line) with the exception of years 2006 and 2007 when it complied by 66.7%.

 The annual report of the results of bathing water quality monitoring is available at:

European Environment Agency: Central Data Repository and the related Greek report for the years 2010 and 2011 are also available

Report by EGY (Special Secretariat for Water) on the quality of bathing waters in Greece 2010

Report by EGY (Special Secretariat for Water) on the quality of bathing waters in Greece 2011

Report by EGY (Special Secretariat for Water) on the quality of bathing waters in Greece 2012

Report by EGY (Special Secretariat for Water) on the quality of bathing waters in Greece 2013

Report by EGY (Special Secretariat for Water) on the quality of bathing waters in Greece 2014

The results of the monitoring programme per year are available at:

NATIONAL ENVIRONMENT INFORMATION NETWORK