Two small (but important) details

The McCann couple has been trying hard to convince Members of European Parliament to support a “written declaration” about setting up an EU alert system for missing children. Adressing the MEPs, Kate McCann said that she “believe the chances for recovery (of Madeleine) would have been higher”, if an EU alert system was in place, on May 3 last year.

Lady Catherine Meyer, who founded a charity to deal with the problem of child abduction told The Telegraph: “"I am without a doubt sure that if an Amber Alert was in place when Madeleine McCann went missing she would have been found, without a doubt." The headline of that story, in The Telegraph says: “Alert 'would have saved' Madeleine McCann”.

The Daily Mirror quotes unnamed relatives of Madeleine McCann: “The family say Madeleine, four, who vanished in May 2007, may have been found if there had been alert system”. The Liverpool Daily Post wrote that “The McCanns believe a European version of Amber Alert - which notifies the public via media across the US when police confirm a child has been abducted - would have helped the search for their daughter in the crucial hours after her disappearance”.

But there are two small details that I believe people must think about it, when facing this barrage of arguments. First detail: Kate McCann raised the alarm that Madeleine has disappeared at 10.00 pm. But the first phone call registered by Portuguese police about a missing child at Praia da Luz resort, was made 46 minutes later. A patrol was sent, from the GNR precint of Lagos, arrived 10/15 minutes later, and called PJ after another 10/15 minutes they spend, in the field, evaluating the situation – common procedure, even for the outstanding British Police. Why that phone call was made only 46 minutes after Kate McCann found Madeleine was missing?

Second detail, according to The Times: “The UK’s most senior officer responsible for missing children today ruled out Kate and Gerry McCann’s plea to introduce an 'amber alert' system. Deputy Assistant Commissioner Richard Bryan insisted that there was no need to emulate the US system of immediate information broadcasts once children have been reported missing (...) People need to realise we have got a version of amber alert in the UK - child rescue alert,' he said. 'That has been in place since 2003 in Sussex and it was rolled out nationally by 2006. We have only had to use it on three occasions.”

European exception for a “McCann Alert”

According to Clarence Mitchell, spokesman of the McCann, there is the possibility of an exceptional extension of time being granted by the European Parliament for collecting all the signatures needed for the written declaration, which Kate and Gerry McCann joined.

"We are keen to get the number by the end of July but we are extremely encouraged by the number of MEPs who have signed it. The hard work will continue until we get the required 110 signatures, but there's the possibility of the period being extended under European Parliament rules and that's a major boost”, Clarence Mitchell said, according to The Press Association.

Article 116 of the European Parliament Regulations is, however, clear about this point: “A written declaration that has stood in the register for over three months and has not been signed by at least one half of the component Members of Parliament shall lapse ”. The so-called “McCann written declaration" was registered on April 24.

At the end of their day at the European Parliament, in Strasbourg, Kate and Gerry McCann only managed to convince 15 deputies to sign the document. Today, the written declaration of Edward McMillan-Scott still needs more 110 signatures.

According to an official source of the European Parliament, “it is not the McCann who joined an existing document, but rather a declaration that was drafted with the single purpose to associate the name of the McCann to it.”

According to McMillan-Scott, Vice-president of the European Parliament and author of the “written declaration”, President Hans-Gert Pöttering would be willing to authorize the extension of the legal time granted, if a total of 300 signatures would be reached at the end of the plenary session of July, a first in the Parliament’s history.

McCann wanted to seize “a policy that is already being enforced”

"The McCann couple launched a public relations campaign, trying to 'seize' a policy that is already being enforced...", accused the Member of European Parliament Carlos Coelho, member of the Christian-Democrat group in the European Parliament and Party colleague of President Barroso. And this MEP knows what he is talking about, as he was among the 54 deputies who had adopted, in a committee session, the European strategy concerning children’s rights, a document which was approved on January 2008.

The “written declaration” to which McMilan-Scott agreed to associate Kate and Gerry McCann thus does not contain anything new, when compared with the legislative project of the European institutions.

In January, after several years of work following a specific strategy, 630 of the 718 deputies present in Strasbourg adopted the European strategy as regards children's’ rights, approving the introduction of a European alert system in the event of an abduction, as well creating a phone number for assistance to the children, an initiative proposed in 2006 but not yet functional in several Member States - a delay considered to be “unjustifiable” for the majority of the deputies.

The document approved by the Parliament goes further, because the deputies “appeal for an European strategy against paedophile tourism and the introduction of a single corpus of off-shore criminal laws, applicable within the entire Union”, which would allow the prosecution, in Europe, of sexual offenders that committed crimes in third countries.

McMillan-Scott, author of the declaration to which the McCann were associated, and a certain Christopher Heaton-Harris, a representative of the district of Rothley are among the deputies who voted for this document.

The European deputy Heaton-Harris is also the author of a written declaration which shows clearly the value of this type of document: in April 2008, he invited his colleagues to sign a written declaration asking for the English language to become the only working language within the European institutions.

Duarte Levy and Paulo Reis

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Just to confirm the headline of our previous posts...

“EU Vice-President Jacques Barrot REJECTS McCann's project of a European Amber alert”, was the headline. It doesn't say that Barroso and Barrot are against the idea of a rapid response alert, just that they don't support the McCann's “recent” idea, launched with the help of five Members of European Parliament. What Barrot said is very clear, I think: The EU will proceed with it's own legislative process of setting up a missing children alert system, following the formal decisions already taken, since 2006 (among others, a legal decision approved in the beginning of this year by the European Parliament).

The EU Commission has it's own project of a rapid response scheme, since 2006. And that is the project that EU and Barrot are willing to set up - not the McCann's inspired proposal of doing something vague and similar as the USA have done, with the Amber Alert. Check what Carlos Coelho, a Portuguese MEP from PSD said: "The McCann couple launched a public relations campaign, trying to "seize" a policy that is already being enforced..." (and watch the exasperation of Kate and Gerry McCann, when questioned by journalists about the fact they left three children alone...)

Take a look at this, from Missing Children Europe: "With as am aim to drive this ambition forward, the European Commission invited representatives of Missing Children Europe to an informal meeting on 17 August. Following this meeting Missing Children Europe convened an Interdisciplinary Core Group of NGOs and law enforcement agencies, which met on 31 August 2007 and drafted some initial recommendations. These recommendations were presented at a meeting convened by the Directorate–General Justice, Freedom and Security of the European Commission involving Representatives of the Police and/or Judicial authorities from the 27 Member States on 12 September. Meanwhile, the European Commission drafted European Guidelines on the EU Child Alert. These Guidelines were inspired by the recommendations of the Interdisciplinary Core Group. The Commission Guidelines were the starting point for the discussions at the Informal Meeting of Justice and Home Affairs Ministers in Lisbon of 2 October and will be the basis for the suggested project."

Duarte Levy and Paulo Reis

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EU Vice-President Jacques Barrot rejects McCann's project of a European Amber alert

The strategy approved by the European Parliament, concerning an alert system for missing children, will go forward, the European Commission Vice-president Jacques Barrot said, Monday, in Strasbourg. The appointment of Mr. Barrot to be the Commissioner for Justice, Freedom and Security, will be voted by the European Parliament next Wednesday.

Mr. Barrot mentioned the European Parliament project intended to set up a EU hotline in all 27 state member and a coordinated alarm system, in cooperation with NGO's and child protection associations and said that child protection was “among his priorities”, during a formal hearing on Monday. This hearing is one of the steps for the appointment of a new Commissioner or a change of portfolio. Mr. Barrot was the Commissioner in charge of Transports.

The remarks were considered by several Members of European Parliament a “diplomatic answer” to the McCann strong critics about the European Parliament project, published in Gerry's blog on 13 June. The parents of Madeleine McCann went to Strasbourg today, trying to get the support of more 182 MEPs, for a “written declaration” that appeals for a system similar to the American Amber alert to be set up in EU, but they only managed to get 15 more signatures and are far from the 393 needed.

During a Press Conference, Kate and Gerry McCann reacted with exasperation, when journalists questioned them about the fact that they left three children alone in an apartment, the night when Madeleine disappeared. “We didn't abandoned or neglected Madeleine. Somebody came in the apartment and took a child. Repeating that question is really annoying”, was the answer of Gerry McCann.

“The fundamental question is the fact that a child was kidnapped and there is a criminal on the run”, said Kate McCann. “We must concentrate in the fundamental question. It's not helpful to insist in raising the same subject. Nothing changed, in the last 14 months and I don't understand why we are talking about that, again.”

Duarte Levy and Paulo Reis

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European missing children alert system being developed since 2006

Gerry McCann “has grown frustrated” by the refusal of many Members of European Parliament to sign up a “written declaration” proposing the creation of an EU alert system similar to the Amber alert, in the USA. The father of Madeleine McCann accused those MEPs of a "complete lack of understanding in what we hope to achieve.”

The McCann have been campaigning for an EU alert system, to deal with cases of missing children. But since 2006, the European Commission has approved a project to set up a single EU hotline number (116 000) and a coordinated alert system, between the 27 Member States.

On December 2006, a special meeting of Member States endorsed the European Commission's initiative to reserve a set of common free phone numbers “for services of social value”, including the number 116 000, to be made “available for hotlines for missing children.” On February 2007, the EU Commission formally adopted the decision “reserving the 116000 telephone number in all Member States as a hotline for reporting missing children.” Viviane Reding, the EU Telecom Commissioner at the time, said that she was “delighted that today the first major step towards a single EU hotline number for missing children has been taken”, according to BBC.

Until now, four European countries have set up the 116 000 hotline to report missing children – Belgium, Greece, Portugal and Denmark – and France will do it this summer. The European Federation for Missing and Sexually Exploited Children (“Missing Children Europe”) was invited by the European Commission to help in this project and, following a meeting on 17 August 2007, Missing Children Europe convened an Interdisciplinary Core Group of NGOs and law enforcement agencies, which met on 31 August 2007 and drafted some initial recommendations, which were the basis for a Commission Guidelines about missing children, discussed at the Informal Meeting of Justice and Home Affairs Ministers in Lisbon of 2 October 2007.

The EU hotline and alert system for missing children is high in the agenda of the French EU presidency, to start in July 2008 and new and important steps are expected, for 2009, as “Missing Children Europe” refers, on a report about it's cooperation with this EU project.

In his blog, on 13 June, Gerry McCann strongly criticized the EU project, claiming that the 116 000 number “is only operational in one out of 27 European countries (Greece) so far.” Also, he considers that the system the EU is setting up, since 2006, does not mean “an Amber alert will be issued for an abducted child as no such system exists." The McCann, who will be in Strasbourg today, 17 June, still need 182 Euro MPs to sign up the “written declaration” but this document carries no legal weight in the European Union.

Duarte Levy and Paulo Reis

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Just ignorance?

Monica Sanchez created a petition on-line, to the UK Prime Minister, to set up an alert system for when children go missing. Why? “There is no actual warning system in this country for when children do go missing. This has to stop as there are too many children that go missing by setting up an amber alert system which should not only cover the UK but also Europe,” she wrote. With a little research, she could find that there is a UK national alert system, since 2006 and the European Union has been working to set up a similar system with the 27 Member States, since 2006.

McCann couple goes to Strasbourg for a last ditch stand

Gerry and Kate McCann will be in Strasbourg next Tuesday in order to try to secure enough support from Members of the European Parliament for a “written declaration” concerning the creation of a European Amber Alert system covering all 27 EU states. But, in fact, this idea was originally proposed by the EU Commissioner for Justice, Freedom and Security, Mr Franco Frattini, in 2006: a detail never mentioned by the McCanns, their media advisers nor by Clarence Mitchell. Mr Frattini proposed that each country should establish an EU alert system, but it was not an initiative for the European Parliament’s legislature.

However, Deputy Assistant Commissioner Richard Bryan, a UK top ranking police officer, who is the Association of Chief Police Officers head of missing people, told the media in May 2007 that “there was no need to emulate the US system of immediate information broadcasts once children have been reported missing.”

According to the Times on-line edition, “Mr Bryan congratulated the McCanns on doing a 'sterling job' in raising the issue of how police deal with child abductions, but he said that police would rather use other investigative techniques to trace children before going public and potentially alerting abductors.”

The UK already has a national alert system for missing children, as Richard Bryan told the Times, “that has been in place since 2003 in Sussex and it was rolled out nationally by 2006. We have only had to use it on three occasions.”

Since 2006, Mr Frattini’s initial idea has taken shape. In February 2007, the European Commission decided to ask all member states to reserve a dedicated set of national phone numbers starting with “116”. The idea was that they should be used as a hotline in the event of a missing child. So far, 10 EU countries have adopted the idea, but the UK is not one of them.

On April 21, following a meeting with the McCanns, five Members of the European Parliament (Edward McMillan-Scott, Roberta Angelilli, Glenys Kinnock, Evelyne Gebhardt and Diana Wallis) submitted a written declaration to the European Parliament concerning “Emergency Cooperation in Recovering Missing Children.” The declaration “calls on Member States to introduce a missing child alert system” and asks for the creation of a “common organisation to provide assistance and training” to police forces in the 27 EU countries.

In order to have the “written declaration” sent to the EU President and published, the McCanns still need the signatures of 182 more Members of the European Parliament to reach the required number of 393. The “written declaration” is just a way to “launch or relaunch a debate on a subject that comes within the EU’s remit”, but it has no legal implications for the EU state members.

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One month without a report about a Madeleine's sighting

Does anyone remembers the last report about an alleged Madeleine's sighting? It was exactly on May 13, in Brazil. It's curious, how the number of reports about people claiming they saw Madeleine has ups and downs, in different periods of time. Just a coincidence? A direct relation with the fact that Madeleine is – or is not - on the front page of British tabloids? Is there another plausible or possible explanation?

European police organizes a child kidnap simulation

Portuguese and Spanish police officers will participate, as observers, on a simulated child's kidnapping, to take place on June 12. The simulation was proposed by the French Justice minister, Rachida Dati, in order to test the coordination of the authorities of all EU countries in these kind of crimes. The simulated kidnap will take place in France. A child from Luxembourg will be “kidnapped” by two police officers, who will try to drive her from France through Belgium, to an unknown destiny, using a car with a Dutch licence plate. Police from France, Belgium, Luxembourg and Holland will participate in the attempt to trace, find and arrest the “kidnappers”. UK police was also invited as an observer, but refused the invitation.

Duarte Levy & Paulo Reis

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UK Ambassador denies contacts between Governments about Madeleine's case

“The only thing I know about the investigation is that Madeleine is still missing”, Alexander Ellis, UK Ambassador in Portugal, told Jornal de Notícias. Alexander Ellis told that what the British Embassy did, in the Madeleine McCann case, was just to “facilitate meetings between the relevant authorities and giving all the necessary support to the British citizens involved in the case.”

Asked if there were any contacts between the British and Portuguese Governments about the case, taking in account the fact that Clarence Mitchell, at the time a UK Prime-Minister's office high ranking official, was sent to Praia da Luz, to help the McCann couple, Alexander Ellis said: “I don't believe. This is a question for Police, not for the Governments, and the authorities have been working with a good coordination.”

But Gordon Brown, speaking to journalists in Lisbon, before the EU summit, on October 2007, said that he was planning to talk, with the Portuguese Prime-Minister about questions related to Madeleine McCann disappearance. The Portuguese Prime-Minister Press Office denied that the question of Madeleine's investigation was ever referred, during the meeting with Gordon Brown. “The only subjects raised during the meeting between Gordon Brown and José Sócrates were related to the EU summit. All the rest is pure speculation”, according to the same source, quoted by Portuguese daily Correio da Manhã. A spokesman for Mr. Gordon Brown denied this and told British Media that prime minister Gordon Brown spoke to his Portuguese counterpart Jose Socrates about Madeleine during the EU summit in Lisbon. Mr Brown’s official spokesman said: “They both agreed what matters was there should be the closest possible co-operation between the Portuguese and British police.”

UK Government also “believes that Durão Barroso is in a very good position” to be the first post-Lisbon Treaty EU President, according to the UK Ambassador. Alexander Ellis is married with a Portuguese and during the two years before being appointed as Ambassador in Lisbon, he was one of the advisers of Durão Barroso, current EU President.

Duarte Levy & Paulo Reis

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