Come On In - the Water's Great!

If you're planning a little excursion from Sofia, perhaps down to one of the country's famed Black Sea resorts, then you'll be glad to hear that Bulgaria is cleaning up its act when it comes to its beaches, according to a new report by the European Union.

The EU bureaucrats gave the country's coastal bathing waters a score of just over 93 per cent for cleanliness, up on last year's findings by the Commission. Then the inspectors found that the water at six beaches were failing to meet their basic standards. However despite this the EU did not advise that people shouldn't swim there.

Bulgaria is on a mission to improve the quality of its sea water; its currently building water treatment plants in the Black Sea region and by 2014, it hopes to have increased its total by 25.

Around the Black Sea there are 138 coastal and 937 inland bathing water areas that the EU inspectors monitor in Bulgaria and Romania - the only two EU countries that have coastline along that stretch. Both countries only joined the EU in 2007. Impressively, neighbouring Romania notched up a clean water score of 98 per cent.