In an interview with EurActiv, McMillan-Scott said he believes EU broadcasters, new media and telecoms companies will "play ball" in nascent efforts to introduce a more integrated and faster system that will alert both the public and law enforcement agencies when a child has gone missing.
The MEP was approached by the McCanns, who were stunned to find that Portugal had no plan in place to alert the media after their daughter, Maddy, disappeared from their holiday villa in Praia de Luz in the Algarve.
Since then, the couple has campaigned for Europe to adopt a US-style system that is able to track abducted youngsters across the continent after rumoured sightings of Maddy in Spain showed holes in cross-border policing.
France ahead of the game
To date, France is the only EU country to have the kind of system the EU is trying to create, according to a recent EU scoreboard.
The country received 150,000 euros in funding for their alert system as they scored 90 in the scoreboard, which evaluates how close countries are to the EU's ideal.
Italy, Portugal, Belgium, Romania, Greece and Cyprus also secured funding, while tenders by Ireland and Poland were rejected as the authorities there did not have either complete documentation or adequate resources, according to the internal document.
New media
"It would be desirable if we could get major web-based resources like Google to participate in the scheme," McMillan-Scott said.
The UK's upcoming pilot scheme will be using new media like web and text messaging, Bluetooth messaging called 'bluecasting', and messages on electronic motorway signs to ensure much wider coverage than before.
The French national child alert system, Alerte Enlevement, allows the authorities to flash up electronic missing child information on motorway signs within thirty minutes of a confirmed case of abduction.
On 20 April, France's Ministry for Justice secured new media partners for its child alert system including LeMonde, Radio France, private broadcaster RTL and Orange, the telecoms company.
Though McMillan-Scott heaped praise on French efforts to get an EU standard, he said Brussels should try to recreate the American system which has found 502 missing children since its launch in 2005.
"The AMBER Alert Programme is a voluntary partnership between law-enforcement agencies, broadcasters, transportation agencies, and the wireless industry, to activate an urgent bulletin in the most serious child-abduction cases," according to a disclaimer on the plan's website.
The UK will launch its pilot alert scheme on 25 May to coincide with International Missing Children's Day.
