Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-10-20-Speech-1-067"
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"en.20031020.5.1-067"2
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". – Mr President, the hot summer weather all over Europe saw bathing sites visited by tourists and by local people who enjoy the pleasures of bathing in clean water. Unfortunately, there are some risks linked to bathing in natural waters.
Bathing waters may be contaminated by bacteria which originate from households, hotels or maybe office buildings. Agriculture may also be a source of contamination and cattle and livestock can pollute rivers and lakes. As a consequence, where they are placed at risk bathers may contract gastro-enteritis, ear or eye infections, or even more serious illnesses.
To reduce the risks related to bathing, a bathing water directive was introduced in 1976. This directive has performed particularly well, and nowadays almost 95% of Europe's bathing waters conform to the quality standards it laid down, as opposed to only 60% ten years ago. Still, we have to look to the future.
The current bathing water directive is based on health and hygiene standards from the 1960s and these have since evolved. Social standards have also changed and these days public information and involvement have become cornerstones of good governance. The legislative-style approach at the heart of the 1976 directive is outdated, since it is based only on monitoring and on measuring, not on the proactive and sound management of bathing waters.
These are just a few of the reasons why the Commission organised the long and thorough public and stakeholder consultation and came up with a new proposal for a bathing water directive which seeks a common and comparable level of protection for all EU waters and all bathers, whether in major tourist resorts or in traditional local bathing sites.
This new proposal supports the concept of beach management and public information and participation, but most of all it stands for stricter health standards, thanks to which our children will be able to bathe in safer waters, reducing risks of illness linked to bathing."@en1
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