Thirty-eight Greek beaches awarded with the Blue Flag saw them … flying away as the Hellenic Society for the Protection of Nature simply removed them. Among the beaches that lost the quality award Blue Flag in the middle of the touristic season are beaches on favorite touristic destinations like Santorini, Zakkynthos and Kefalonia.
In a statement issued on Monday, the EEPF said that blue flags were removed from 38 beaches by Greek and international evaluators who made unannounced visits and found that the beaches did not fulfill the required criteria.
The criteria not fulfilled in these beaches are: providing services to swimmers and visitors, cleanliness, correct information, safety of swimmers and visitors, actions for the environmental protection of the coast line.
According to the Program’s criteria, members of the Program Coordinating Committee have decided, as expected, to withdraw the awards in order to preserve the prestige and credibility of the institution.
The touristic destinations that lost the most Blue Flags are:
- Zakynthos that lost all blue 18 flags
- Kefalonia 7
- Santorini 5
- Achaia, North Peloponnese 3
- Thessaloniki: Neoi Epivates, Potamos
- Fthiotida: Livricho, Souvala
- Crete – Hiona, Lasithi
The Blue Flags were awarded in May.
“Given that the award concerns the previous year and not the current year, should re-evaluations do not show progress and compliance in meeting the criteria by the end of the swimming season, these beaches cannot be candidates for the awards in the year 2019,” the statement concluded.
Read also ⇒ All Blue Flags removed from the 18 beaches on Zakynthos (Zante)
The list of beaches were the Blue Flags were removed is here in Greek.
