Diana "overjoyed" at the European Parliament's call for a Europe-wide alert system for missing children

3.00.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Thu 10th Jul 2008

As the holiday season begins we become even more aware of the danger for children to go missing. Most of the time this is just a temporary absence: - of a few seconds, minutes or hours.

Diana Wallis MEP said:

"Most parents and grand-parents will have experienced that heart-stopping moment in their lives when they just do not know where their little one is. Lost in a crowd, on the beach, or out of sight in the local park - whatever the situation is, the fear is the same. Hours really do count when trying to find missing children.

"So, on those rare occasions when a child has really gone missing, parents want to know that the best alert systems are in place to help find their missing child.

"Mostly alert systems would work at a local or national level, but occasionally neighbouring countries' emergency services will need to co-operate cross-border to ensure that all that can be is being done. This is a good example of MEPs working together to make Europe work for us".

Diana is a co-author of a Written Declaration in the European Parliament which calls on the countries in the European Union to set-up a version of the US "Amber Alert" system. The Written Declaration was launched in April and today, Thursday 10 July 2008, reached the required number of signatures for it to be presented to the European Commission and the Council of Ministers requesting action be taken.

Evidence indicates that such a system has proven to be extremely successful and worthwhile on a national basis in both the USA and France. 393 children have been recovered alive in the USA since its inception (90% in last 5 years); 68 children recovered directly as a result of the Amber Alert system in 2007; 'Alerte Enlevement' in France introduced in 2006- used 5 times- all the children have been recovered alive.

Kate and Gerry McCann met Diana in Strasbourg recently as part of the campaign for the introduction of a European version of the US Amber Alert system which enables an early warning to be given via the media across the country when police confirm a child has been abducted.