WRITTEN QUESTION E-2595/00

by Fernando Fernández Martín (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(1 August 2000)

Subject: Blue flags

Virtually all the media on the Canaries have reported that the European Union has awarded blue flags to six ports in the islands. According to the information available to me, this award has been granted annually in Spain for 12 years by a non-governmental organisation originally set up in France in 1985 and known as the European Environmental Education Foundation (EEEF).

What relationship exists between the EEEF and the European Union institutions, and on the basis of what provisions is it entitled to grant its European Union blue flags? Is the Commission or any other European Union institution responsible for ensuring that all the beaches and marinas receiving this award comply with the European Community Bathing Water Directive and other provisions deriving from that directive?

Answer given by Mrs Wallström on behalf of the Commission

(19 September 2000)

The blue flag campaign is a project initiated by the Foundation for environmental education in Europe (FEEE), based in Copenhagen (Denmark). The objective of this campaign is to inform the general public of the quality of beaches in several European countries inside and outside the Community and to increase the environmental awareness of local authorities and tourism operators. FEEE has associated organisations in the participating countries (national operators) which assess the beaches applying for a blue flag. This assessment is made for four major issues, for which both imperative and guideline criteria are established: environmental education and information, environmental management, safety and services, and water quality. The water quality criterion is based on the guideline values of the Community bathing water Directive, Council Directive 76/160/EEC of 8 December 1976 concerning the quality of bathing water(1).

In the past the Commission participated in the work of the jury of FEEE which takes the final decision to award (or not) a blue flag to beaches for which the national juries could not come to a decision and ratifies the decisions of FEEE national operators. FEEE also received financial support from the Commission.

However, for both financial and technical reasons the Commission decided in 1998 not to grant financial support for the 1999 blue flag campaign. Also for the 2000 campaign no financial support was granted, as the measures of control of the flag's attribution were not considered effective enough.

Consequently, there is no participation by the Commission in the jury awarding the blue flags. The question of beaches complying with the blue flag is the sole responsibility of the FEEE foundation.

The Commission publishes annually its report on bathing water quality in the Community, the latest edition in May 2000. This report is published in all Community languages in print, and is available on the Internet(2). Of all the 217 beaches in the Islas Canarias, 195 met the stricter guideline values of the bathing water Directive, 19 met the imperative values and only three did not meet the criteria.

The Commission is currently preparing a proposal to the Parliament and the Council for a review of the bathing water Directive. Information of the public about bathing water quality will be one of the main pillars of this proposal.

(1) OJ L 31, 5.2.1976.

(2) http://europa.eu.int/water/water-bathing/report.html.