Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union

E2: Environmental statistics and accounts; sustainable development

e-mail contact : ESTAT-SDG-MONITORING@ec.europa.eu

The indicator is part of the EU Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) indicator set. It is used to monitor progress towards SDG 14 on conserving and sustainably using the oceans, seas and marine recources for sustainable development, and towards SDG 6 on ensuring availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all which are embedded in the European Commission’s Priorities under the 'European Green Deal'.

SDG 14 aims to protect and ensure the sustainable use of oceans. This includes the reduction of marine pollution and the impacts of ocean acidification, the ending of overfishing and the conservation of marine and coastal areas and ecosystems. SDG 14 has strong interdependencies with a broad range of other SDGs, as oceans sustain coastal economies and livelihoods, contribute to food production and function as a carbon sink

The EU Bathing Water Directive is one of the success stories in EU water policy and is important to protect human health and the environment. It also contributes to ensuring Good Environmental Status under the Marine Strategy Framework Directive and Good Ecological and Chemical Status under the Water Framework Directive.

The indicator shows the share of inland and coastal bathing sites with excellent water quality in the EU. Bathing water quality is assessed according to standards for microbiological parameters (intestinal Enterococci and Escherichia coli). The indicator is calculated based on the moving average of at least 16 sampling events in four years to be sure that a realistic bathing water classification is achieved.  The Bathing Water Directive (BWD) requires Member States to identify and assess the quality of all inland and marine bathing waters and to classify these waters as ‘poor’, ‘sufficient’, ‘good’ or ‘excellent’ depending on the levels of faecal bacteria detected.

Number and % of bathing sites with excellent water quality
i. coastal water
ii. inland water

Calendar year

Indicator from non-ESS sources. For assessment of accuracy please refer to the original source (see link to external data source and metadata in “Annexes”).

European Environment Agency (EEA)

Data source: European Environment Agency (EEA)

Data provider: European Environment Agency (EEA)

Every year

Indicator is updated annually in June.

T+1 year

New data points are disseminated within one year after the reference year (bathing season).

All EU MS

Coastal water: Data are presented for all EU Member States (except landlocked countries) plus Albania and Montenegro.
Inland water: Data are presented for all EU Member States except Cyprus, and Malta, plus Switzerland.

All EU MS

Data are comparable between EU Member States respectively other presented countries.

The geographical comparability is ensured by the application of common classification procedure established by the Article 5 of and Annex II to the Bathing Water Directive.

> 10 years

Presented time series (including EU aggregates) starts in 2011.

> 4 data points

Length of comparable time series without methodological breaks is longer than 4 data points.

Analysis of indicator is presented in Eurostat's annual monitoring report on Sustainable development in the EU (progress towards SDGs in the EU context).

See table  sdg_14_40

Eurostat dedicated section on SDGs: http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/sdi/overview

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