MEPs Back Sex Offenders List

The vast majority of European parliamentarians back the creation of an EU-wide sex offenders register, according to a poll published yesterday by the parents of missing Madeleine McCann.

As media in both Britain and Portugal continued to speculate about the progress of the police investigation into the disappearance, 112 days ago, of four-year-old Madeleine, parents Kate and Gerry McCann called for politicians to react to public concern prompted by the case.

"Since Madeleine's abduction, Kate and I have been made aware of a number of areas in European Law that may be improved to help prevent child abuse and track those responsible for such crimes," her father, Gerry McCann, said.

Due to the increasingly borderless European Union, the McCanns said, it had become vitally important for countries to co-ordinate the way they acted. That meant not just the creation of an EU-wide sex offenders register but also a common protocol, similar to Britain's Child Rescue Alert Scheme, for dealing with missing children cases.

A call was also made for sex offenders to be forced to register with police forces in other countries if they moved around the EU.

The McCanns have spent some of the million of pounds raised so far by their Madeleine's Fund to poll both UK MPs and European MPs. More than 95% of the 105 European MPs polled said they backed both the Europe-wide sex offenders register and a common policy on serious crimes against children.