What does “Excellent” bathing-water quality actually mean?
“Excellent” is the highest annual classification under the European Bathing Water Directive. It is based on microbiological monitoring, especially Escherichia coli and intestinal enterococci.
It is a multi-season assessment
The official annual classification is not based on a single sample. The 2025 EEA assessment uses monitoring data from the 2022–2025 bathing seasons where the required data are available. That makes the class useful for understanding longer-term microbiological quality.
The four official classes
Official bathing waters can be classified as Excellent, Good, Sufficient or Poor. Some waters are Not classified when the required assessment data are not available, for example at newly designated sites or where sampling is incomplete.
What Excellent does not cover
An Excellent class does not mean every possible hazard has been tested. The annual classification does not by itself cover all chemical pollutants, harmful algae events, jellyfish, dangerous currents, flooding, storm runoff, access restrictions or emergency closures.
2025 European context
Across the full 2025 EEA reporting area — EU-27, Albania and Switzerland — 22,289 bathing waters were reported and 84% were classified Excellent. At EU level, the share was 85%.