EURO BOOST FOR McCANN CAMPAIGN
Posted, April 30, 2008 @ 00:00
Kate and Gerry McCann are well on their way to the required number of signatures from MEPs supporting a Europe-wide ‘Amber Alert’ missing child system, which they put forward in the European Parliament earlier this month.
In order to have formal status as a resolution, 393 of the 785 MEPs must sign the Written Declaration and so far 127 have done so. The Declaration opened for signatures last week and remains open until July. A similar initiative failed two years ago.
Vice President of the European Parliament Edward McMillan-Scott MEP, who sponsored the McCanns' visit to Brussels, said:
"I support the McCanns completely. Out of the agony of Madeleine's disappearance they are adding the voice of their terrible experience. What is needed is political will. The Amber Alert would cost nothing but would save children's lives.
"Europe is opening up and not only should every country have an Amber Alert, but sometimes a cross-frontier, or even a pan-European alert system would be appropriate. The time has come to get on with it. Most countries have a Severe Weather alert system - all we need is to use the same mechanism for missing children."
Mr McMillan-Scott- a campaigner for child rights - also revealed that the French Interior Minister, Michèle Alliot-Marie, had urged MEPs on a recent visit to Strasbourg to sign the Declaration to add political weight to the upcoming French Presidency of the European Union, which will place the need for an EU-wide Amber Alert as one of its priorities.
Notes to editors:
If a majority of MEPs sign the Written Declaration it will be adopted by Parliament without a vote. This does not have binding effect; it is a political declaration which aims to encourage action from the Member States and the Commission.
The European Commission has been pressing governments to set up an Amber Alert system, but only France has one. Since the Amber Alert began in the USA in 2003, nearly 400 children have been recovered, 80 per cent within the crucial first 72 hours