Romania officially had 50 bathing water sites in 2015, which represented only 0.2% of all bathing water sites in Europe, according to a report by the European Environment Agency (EEA) and the European Commission. Moreover, only a third of these sites had excellent bathing conditions compared to a EU average of 84%.

Most of the bathing water sites in Romania (49) were located on the Black Sea coast and only one was inland.

Only 16 of the 50 bathing water sites in Romania (or 32%) had excellent water quality, way below the EU average of 84.4%. Some 23 of Romania’s bathing waters were of good quality (46%), 10 had sufficient quality (20%), and one was of poor quality (2%).

In 2014, only 11 of Romania’s bathing water sites were of excellent quality (or 22%), while in 2013 the number stood at 17 (34%).

The report includes all 28 EU Member states, plus Albania and Switzerland. Romania ranks last among these countries when it comes to the percentage of bathing waters of excellent quality, just after Albania with a share of 32.1%. Luxembourg tops the ranking (all 11 bathing waters in the country have excellent water quality), followed by Cyprus (99.1%), Malta (97.7%), Greece (97.2%), Croatia (94.2 %), Italy (90.5%), Germany (90.3%) and Austria (90.2%).

There were 383 sites with poor quality bathing water in Europe in 2015, the report shows. Most of these poor quality sites were in Italy (95 bathing water sites or 1.7%), France (95 bathing water sites or 2.8%), and Spain (58 bathing water sites or 2.6%), but these are also the countries with most bathing sites.

Interestingly, Romania officially has fewer bathing sites than Austria (265), Hungary (246), Switzerland (216), and the Czech Republic (153), although these four countries have no sea access.

Romania’s southern neighbor Bulgaria had 94 bathing water sites, 71% of which were excellent quality. Many Romanians prefer to spend their summer holidays at the Bulgarian seaside.

There were more than 21,200 bathing waters in the EU in 2015, and 84.4% (17,959) of them had excellent water quality. Find the entire report here.

Romania has 15 'excellent' beaches, 22 'good' beaches and and 11 'satisfactory' beaches, according to a report of the Romanian Ministry of Health, cited by local Ziarul Financiar. The best beaches are the ones in Navodari, Mamaia, Olimp and Venus, whereas the beaches in Eforie Nord, Eforie Sud, and Jupiter are the worst.

Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com