SAFETY OF CHILDREN : MISSING CHILDREN HOTLINE STILL NOT UP ACROSS EU.

PositionBrief article

The EU's missing children hotline number - 116000a- is already operational in five EU countries, but Information Society Commissioner Viviane Reding is not satisfied. "There is no room or time for complacency when it comes to the safety of our children," she said, calling for a "a more ambitious approach" from the other member states "so we can quickly get the hotlines running across the EU". The 116000 hotline - accessible free of charge, nationwide and 24/7- already works in Greece, Hungary, the Netherlands, Portugal and Romania. Belgium and Slovakia will soon follow suit.

Since its introduction in Hungary in 2008 (the first member state to have done so), the hotline received around 40,000 attempted calls each month, of which the local service could answer about six or seven thousand. By now, all member states have made the number publicly available to hotline providers, as required by EU law. The Commission now "once again" calls on the member states "to...

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