News that will delight the Algarve's tourism industry, Britain has been found to have the highest proportion in the EU of “poor” bathing water sites.
The new rankings indicate water quality at thousands of beaches around the EU.
Only Albania, which is not an EU member, had a worse ranking.
Thirty-one British beaches were found to be below the new minimum standards. These represent 5% of all the bathing beach sites in the UK.
This was a greater proportion than any other EU country.
At the same time, the UK had the third lowest proportion of bathing waters which could be ranked “excellent”, just shy of 60%. Only Romania and Slovakia had lower levels.
The EU average of excellent bathing beach water was 85.5%.
UK ratings have fallen significantly after the UK was judged for the first time under the same rigorous new standards as the rest of the EU. Previous rankings were artificially high as a more lenient standard was applied to the UK.
Beaches that failed under the new system have been obliged to erect signs advising against swimming. If a beach fails for five consecutive years, this advice could become permanent.
European Commissioner for the Environment, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, said: "European bathing water is at 96% acceptable and 84% excellent standards. That is the result of 40 years investing in water and waste water infrastructure.”
Britain could be on its way to regaining its reputation as the “Dirty Man of Europe” owing to its poor sea water in the 1970s and 1980s.
