EU: A single Europe-wide emergency hotline to help trace missing and sexually exploited children should be set up before the end of the year.
The new six-digit phone number is one of several measures proposed by the European Commission yesterday as part of a new strategy to promote and safeguard children's rights.
The EU also plans to support banks in their efforts to combat the use of credit cards to purchase sexual images of children on the internet and will appoint a children's rights co-ordinator.
It will also promote a range of actions to tackle child poverty and a new action plan to address children's needs in developing countries.
"Children may suffer many painful situations and even dangers, be it trafficking, poverty, sex tourism, forced labour," said Franco Frattini, EU justice commissioner, who added that 40 million children below 12 suffered abuse and neglect while 5.7 million were involved in types of work that amounted to "virtual slavery".
The strategy, which was unveiled at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, will deploy a range of internal and external EU policies. It proposes drawing up a preliminary inventory of some 75 different EU instruments affecting children's rights, which would be proposed by the European Commission during 2006 and 2007, says the draft strategy.
The single phone number proposed by the commission would not replace existing national hotlines for children. However it should be available in cases of emergency when travelling in other EU states.
"Any child who has been kidnapped, who was abused, who was asking for help and who doesn't know the language of the country they're in could be helped in various languages," said Mr Frattini. He said existing child telephone hotlines in Belgium and Italy had proved a big success.
The new strategy to promote children's rights was unveiled just a day after the funeral of two young Belgian girls who where abducted and murdered last month.
Last week Mr Frattini said the horrific case showed how vital it was for EU states to co-operate against paedophilia, urging them to implement EU legislation against child pornography. Just five EU states have so far implemented these laws.
The Irish children's charity Barnardo's gave a guarded welcome to the plan. However, director of advocacy Norah Gibbons said the political reality was that unless a proper children's champion was appointed, the strategy might just gather dust on a shelf.