Article 4

1. Member States shall take all necessary measures to ensure that, within 10 years following the notification of this Directive, the quality of bathing water conforms to the limit values set in accordance with Article 3. 2. Member States shall ensure that, in bathing areas specially equipped for bathing to be created by the competent authorities of the Member States after the notification of this Directive, the "I values" laid down in the Annex are observed from the time when bathing is first permitted. However, for bathing areas created during the two years following the notification of this Directive, these values need not be observed until the end of that period. 3. In exceptional circumstances Member States may grant derogations in respect of the 10-year time limit laid down in paragraph 1. Justifications for any such derogations based on plans for the management of water within the area concerned must be communicated to the Commission as soon as possible and not later than six years following the notification of this Directive. The Commission shall examine these justifications in detail and, where necessary, make appropriate proposals concerning them to the Council. 4. As regards sea water in the vicinity of frontiers and water crossing frontiers which affect the quality of the bathing water of another Member State, the consequences for the common quality objectives for bathing areas so affected shall be determined in collaboration by the riparian Member States concerned. The Commission may participate in these deliberations.

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Source: EUR-Lex (Cellar) · retrieved 2026-11-10 · Text as adopted (Official Journal); later amendments are not incorporated in this text.