{"id":11067,"date":"2026-06-16T15:33:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T12:33:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/?p=11067"},"modified":"2026-06-16T15:33:00","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T12:33:00","slug":"greeces-seas-are-crystal-clear-top-rank-in-the-eu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/?p=11067","title":{"rendered":"Greece’s Seas Are Crystal Clear – Top Rank in the EU"},"content":{"rendered":"

In 2025, Greece recorded one of the top performances in the European Union, with 97.1% of bathing water classified as “excellent” quality and no site classified as “poor” quality.<\/p>\n

Consistently at the top in Europe<\/h2>\n

From the Atlantic<\/strong> to the Mediterranean<\/strong>, the vast majority of European bathing waters met the strictest standards of \u201cexcellent\u201d quality<\/strong> in 2025, according to the annual report by the European Environment Agency (EEA)<\/strong> and the European Commission<\/strong>. The assessment was based on monitoring more than 22,200 bathing sites<\/strong> in the 27 EU member states, as well as in Albania<\/strong> and Switzerland<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

At the EU<\/strong> level, 85%<\/strong> of bathing sites were classified as \u201cexcellent\u201d quality, while 96%<\/strong> met at least the minimum requirements of the relevant Directive. Only 1.5%<\/strong> were classified as \u201cpoor\u201d quality, with the overall picture remaining essentially unchanged from the previous year.<\/p>\n

coastal waters<\/b> continued to perform better than inland waters, as 88%<\/strong> of marine sites were rated as \u201cexcellent,\u201d compared to 78%<\/strong> of rivers and lakes. At the top of the rankings were Cyprus<\/strong>, Greece<\/strong>, Bulgaria<\/strong>, and Austria<\/strong>, with rates above 95%<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"e4e77753-1a10-4505-9af5-9d44a03e51d9.jpg\"<\/figure>\n

Greece in Numbers<\/h2>\n

Greece<\/strong> is once again among the leading participants in this year\u2019s European exhibition. Of the 1,734 recognized swimming waters<\/strong>, of which 1,733 are coastal<\/strong> and just one is inland, 97.1%<\/strong> were classified as \u201cexcellent\u201d quality<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

At the same time, 99.6%<\/strong> of Greek waters meet at least the minimum standards of the Directive, as they are rated \u201csufficient\u201d or better. During 2025, a total of 10,477 samples<\/strong> were collected and analyzed.<\/p>\n

A particularly positive finding is that no sites were classified as \u201cpoor\u201d<\/strong>, while only one site was rated as \u201csufficient.\u201d The seven unclassified water bodies<\/strong> account for 0.4%<\/strong> of the total and were not assessed due to insufficient sampling, not due to a decline in quality.<\/p>\n

\"1e56b6c6-ac36-458f-8aa6-bc030ef9d99f.jpg\"<\/figure>\n

How is the assessment conducted<\/h2>\n

The classification<\/strong> of bathing waters is based on two key microbiological indicators<\/strong>, Escherichia coli<\/strong> and enterococci<\/strong>, which are indicators of fecal contamination and potential risks to public health.<\/p>\n

In 2025, six new bathing sites<\/strong> were designated for the first time, while two were removed from the list. At the same time, 1,733 Greek water bodies<\/strong> (a percentage of 99.9%<\/strong>) fully met monitoring requirements, with sampling prior to the start of the season and at least four samples per bathing season.<\/p>\n

During the four-year period 2022\u20132025<\/strong>, a total of 1,677 sites<\/strong> (96.7%) were continuously monitored, 56 sites<\/strong> (3.2%) had been recently identified, and only one site had a monitoring gap.<\/p>\n

\"katagrafi.png\"<\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

What the long-term trend shows<\/h2>\n

The long-term trend<\/strong> confirms the consistently high quality of Greek waters. Over the last four years, the percentage of sites of \u201cexcellent\u201d quality<\/strong> has remained consistently above 95.8%<\/strong>, while the number of unclassified sites decreased significantly, from 51 in 2023<\/strong> to just 7 in 2025<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"katagrafi1.png\"<\/figure>\n

The report notes that the Bathing Water Directive<\/strong> complements a broader European framework for water protection, which includes the Water Framework Directive<\/strong>, the Directive<\/strong>, the Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive<\/strong>, the Nitrates Directive<\/strong>, and the Marine Strategy Framework Directive<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

However, the EEA<\/strong> points out that the assessment concerns exclusively microbiological parameters and does not cover other potential chemical <\/b>pollutants, such as pesticides, pharmaceuticals, or nutrients. Despite the positive picture, maintaining healthy and resilient aquatic ecosystems requires continuous progress in the face of the challenges of pollution<\/strong> and climate change<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Commenting on the results, the Commissioner for Environment, Water Resilience, and a Competitive Circular Economy<\/strong>, Gesika Rosval<\/strong>, emphasized that the data demonstrate the importance of European environmental legislation and long-term investments in wastewater treatment. For her part, the Executive Director of EEA<\/strong>, Leena Ila-Mononen<\/strong>, emphasized that consistent enforcement of the rules has made the vast majority of European waters safe for swimming and more resilient to the effects of climate change.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In 2025, Greece recorded one of the best results in the European Union, with 97.1% of its bathing waters classified as \u201cexcellent\u201d …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11068,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11067","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-greece"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11067","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11067"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11067\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}