Cyprus Beaches are Best

Luxembourg and Poland have the worst beaches, according to the European Commission’s annual beach report. Cyprus has the cleanest coastal beaches, scoring 99 percent compliance with the strictest standards, followed by Greece with 96 percent.

For fresh-water bathing sites Denmark (90 percent graded excellent), Estonia (82 percent), Germany (79 percent) and Austria (77 per cent) were best.

The report included information on 14,345 coastal and 6,749 inland bathing areas. Areas that met mandatory standards stood at 96 percent, similar to figures last year. The quality of freshwater sites increased slightly from last year to 89 percent.

Some 250 bathing sites were removed from the results for trying to cheat inspectors by masking pollution or artificially improving their scores.

Only seven of Luxembourg’s twenty swimming sites met EU’s standards. Inspections in the tiny Duchy had seen “no sign of improvement for a number of years”.

Poland also scored poorly. Of its 70 coastal bathing sites, 14 percent failed to meet minimum quality standards, while 17 percent failed similar standards for inland freshwater sites.

Britain rated 13th for beaches classed as excellent, just ahead of France but behind most beach holiday destinations in Europe. After Cyprus and Greece, Spain came in third place (93 percent of beaches classed as excellent), Italy 4th (91 percent) and Portugal 7th (90 percent).

European beaches are awarded coveted blue flags, as a measure of quality and safety if they meet stringent EU standards on everything from the cleanliness of the bathing water and lifeguard services, to how many litter bins are placed at the bathing sites.