On 24 March 2019, the European External Action Service joined DG Maritime Affairs and Fisheries of the European Commission, in organising a beach clean-up (#EUbeachcleanup) by EU staff members on the Belgian coast, supporting the NGO Surfrider Foundation Europe and Eneco in this awareness raising initiative, which reflects that the EU is also doing its bit for #OurOcean.

An alarming 11.5 tonnes of litter were collected which goes to show that every little bit of action helps.

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The EU's participation in the beach clean in De Haan kicked off the annual EU Global Beach Clean-up actions which usually take place in September to mark the International Coastal Clean-up Day – last year over 65 countries around the world participated and the numbers are increasing substantially every year.