I have welcomed an initiative by the European Union to introduce a new, and much needed, common missing children hotline.

The new EU hotline number 116-000 would be free of charge and would be operational in all of the 27 states of the EU. This would mean that should a child go missing in any one of the member states, parents can be reassured that a child may phone this number irrespective of their location and access people who could help to locate them.

My Labour colleagues and I fully support such a measure, but it would reassuring to know that this hotline would be up and running soon, now that the summer holidays have started, as so many families will be taking holidays within Europe. It would be an additional help for the well-being of our children.

The expansion of the EU to incorporate 27 countries, with the free movement of persons throughout most of the internal borders, has meant that the issue of missing children within Europe is frequently a trans-border phenomenon which is in need of a co-ordinated Europe-wide response.