23 June 2008 | Greece and Turkey come second only to Spain when it comes down to the number of clean beaches on their territory, according to the recently updated list of Blue Flag beaches and marinas.

The list, which currently includes 2,633 awarded beaches and 620 marinas worldwide, placed Greece and Turkey in second and third place respectively. The two countries – Greece boasting 430 blue-flagged beaches and Turkey – 258, were superseded only by Spain (with its 455 recognised beaches).

The Blue Flag status, awarded by the Copenhagen-based NGO Foundation for Environmental Education, is granted to beaches that correspond to 29 criteria covering four main areas, including environmental education and information, water quality, environmental management and safety and services.

Blue Flags are only granted for one season at a time. The list of awarded sites in Europe is updated on June 5 each year.

While the condition of many beaches in Greece and Turkey is admirable, this can’t be said of the coastlines of most of the Balkans’ other countries. Croatia isn’t too far behind with its 125 blue-flagged beaches, but the remaining states with a coastline in the region aren’t faring so well: Montenegro has 18 awarded beaches, Bulgaria has nine and Romania only has one.

On the one hand, the different lengths of these countries coastlines surely affect their chances of getting recognised beaches. For example, the 255 kilometres of Black Sea coast that belong to Romania are no match for the 15,000 kilometres of coastline that belong to Greece.

These differences, however, do not fully explain the discrepancies. As BalkanTravellers.com reported in March, there were hopes that a Blue Flag will be awarded to a beach in Albania, though the current updated selection does not include the country. While Albania’s 400-kilometre coastline on the Adriatic and Ionian Seas is not insignificant, uncontrolled overdevelopment, a lack of proper sewage treatment facilities, badly organised solid waste disposal systems and unregulated dumping of garbage continue to cause damage and pollute the country’s beaches.

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