The quality of bathing water in Croatia is among the highest in Europe this year also, with over 95% of sites assessed as 'excellent', shows a report published by the European Commission and the European Environment Agency on Friday.

The majority of bathing water sites in Europe met the EU’s most stringent ‘excellent’ water quality standards in 2022, according to the latest annual Bathing Water report, which covers sites in all EU member states, Albania and Switzerland.

EU bathing water legislation specifies if bathing water quality can be classified as ‘excellent’, ‘good’, ‘sufficient’ or ‘poor’, depending on the levels of faecal bacteria detected. Where water is classified as ‘poor’, EU countries should take certain measures, such as banning bathing or advising against it, providing information to the public, and taking suitable corrective actions.

In Croatia, bathing water quality was tested at 936 sites in 2022, of which 894 coastal and 42 inland. Water quality was assessed as excellent at 895 bathing sites, good at 24, sufficient at six, and poor at one inland bathing site.

In 2022, 95% of bathing waters in Cyprus, Austria, Greece, and Croatia met the ‘excellent’ quality standard.

The quality of water at coastal sites, which makes up two-thirds of total bathing spots, is generally better than that of inland river and lake sites, the report says. In 2022, 88.9% of the EU’s coastal bathing sites were classified as being of excellent quality as compared to 79.3% of inland sites.