Follow up to the Commission's communication on the Rights of the Child

On Wednesday 17 January Commissioner Frattini spoke at the meeting of First Ladies (the Queen of Belgium, the Queen of Sweden, Mrs Laura Bush, Mrs Lioudmila Putin and Mrs Margarida Sousa Uva-Barroso) in Paris on the European Strategy on Children´s Rights. EFSC has been involved in this strategy on a consultative level since the very beginning as a member of the core group of the Brussels NGO Group on Child rights. Following on from the Commission's Communication on the Rights of the Child, published on 4 July 2006, Mr Franco Frattini emphasised that the protection of children's rights is a key priority of the European Commission and he reiterated his commitment to establishing a long-term strategy on the rights of the child.

The Commissioner announced his plan to organise a yearly European Forum on the Rights of the Child, which will bring together national and international experts, ombudspersons for children, NGOs and representatives of civil society, in order to exchange existing and innovative practices concerning children. In respect of Article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, children themselves will also be invited to actively participate in the Forum and share their own points of view. In the first Forum meeting, scheduled for the first semester of 2007, Mr Frattini will present the European Coordinator for Children's Rights whose role is to coordinate the activities related to children's rights implemented by the different Directorate Generals within the Commission, as well as to maintain permanent contact with civil society. The first Forum will be on the subject of media violence, especially with regard to video games.

The Commissioner was pleased to point out the fight against racism and xenophobia as a key priority of the current German presidency of the EU, making reference to the Commission's proposal for a Council framework decision on combating racism and xenophobia and highlighting the particular vulnerability of children to acts of racism.

The Commission will also deliver a Communication in Spring 2007 on the fight against cyber-crime. This will include proposals for cooperation on combating the exploitation of children and child pornography on the internet. Mr Frattini is working in collaboration with banks and credit card companies in order to try and implement stricter controls on, as well as reduce, the buying of child pornography on the internet.

New Commission initiative on missing children

Commissioner Frattini acknowledged that missing children is a cross-border problem and underlined the Commission's support for the establishment of a pan-European early-warning system in relation to this. As a first step, a European emergency help line for missing children, telephone number 116 000, was set up on 17 January 2007.

This number will become available in each European country between now and summer 2007 and is free of charge.