BRUSSELS — The majority or 97.1 pct of Greece's swimming waters are classified as "excellent" in the European Environmental Agency's 2020 Bathing Water report, which was released on Tuesday.

The report also mentioned that an 83 pct of coastal and inland bathing waters across the EU are assessed as belonging in the same top classification.

Greece, Cyprus, Malta, Croatia and Austria are the only EU countries which meet more than 95 pct of the agency's quality standards for bathing waters.

The evaluation was based on extensive monitoring and water samples-testing at some 22,276 coastal and inland bathing waters at EU members states, and also at Albania and Switzerland, throughout 2020. A total of 1,634 bathing areas were tested across Greece.

The high standards of bathing waters in the EU is the result of the bloc's countries following directives over the last 40 years, said EU Commissioner for Environment, Oceans & Fisheries Virginijus Sinkevicius.

The agency's assessment classification system categorizes the quality of bathing waters as Excellent, Good, Sufficient, Poor and Not Classified.

(ANA-MPA/M. Aroni)