One out of three fresh water bathing zones in the EU is either insufficiently monitored or fails to meet minimum quality requirements…

Date: 22/05/1997

...according to the Commission's annual bathing water report. Environment Commissioner Ritt Bjerregaard called particularly on Germany, France, the Netherlands, Spain and Portugal to prove they could improve standards - as they had already done for seaside beaches. The report, covering 13,000 seaside beaches and 6,000 fresh water areas, found that 90&percent; of seaside beaches now respected minimum standards.