Speaking on 17 January 2007, Justice and Home Affairs Commissioner Franco Frattini said: "The European Commission is ready to catalyse and provoke the necessary meetings among interested parties at European level," he stated, adding that "Europe must become...a guardian angel of its children and the world's children."
In France, police alert people within a 15km radius of a missing child reprt with SMSs and emails providing a description and urging vigilance. The zone widens to 30km and further as the investigation continues.
Credit-card companies were also urged by the commissioner to adopt Visa Europe's policy of implementing digital-protection measures that largely prevent customers from purchasing paedophile material on the internet.
Some 1,800 minors are reported missing each year in Italy, 1,000 in Belgium, 850 in the UK and 70,000 EU-wide, according to Brussels statistics.
Frattini's audience at Paris's Elysée Palace included the Kings of Belgium and Sweden plus VIP wives Ludmilla Putin, Sousa Uva Barroso and Laura Bush and his is part of wide-reaching EU efforts to reduce child abuse in Europe.
In February, member states will be encouraged to set up a single telephone number - 116000 - accessible to anyone in the EU to raise the alarm on child abuse. Implementation is set to be tabled before the summer.
