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Learning from Shannon Matthews' disappearance

• Mark Mardell
• 16 Mar 08, 10:30 PM

Could Shannon have been found earlier if there had been common European guidelines for police to follow?

Conservative MEP wants the European Union to adopt a common alert scheme for missing children.

He says that Shannon Mathews would have been found much earlier if there had been one in operation.

The scheme he favours is based on , and it would have meant that all members of the extended family would have been interviewed.

In the US, 80% of cases involving missing children involve a relative. has met with on ways the EU can be more involved in cross-border activity.

He wants the French to press the idea when they take over the EU presidency in the summer.

The : the he likes to see the EU as β€œthe guardian angel” of children. What do you think?

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What the summit achieved on CO2

• Mark Mardell
• 16 Mar 08, 02:55 PM

What should we watch for after this summit?

Probably how the Germans mitigate the pain involved in cutting greenhouse gases.

They, and of course other countries, are worried about their heavy industry and their cars, and how they will fare if Europe has tough rules, but no one else does.

So Mrs Merkel got agreement on this form of words:

"The European Council recognises that in a global context of competitive markets, the risk of carbon leakage is a concern in certain sectors such as energy intensive industries particularly exposed to international competition that needs to be analysed and addressed urgently in the new ETS directive so that if international negotiations fail, appropriate measures can be taken."

"Carbon leakage" is rather loaded jargon for companies or production going from a country with tight environmental rules to one with lower regulations, so the net effect of tough legislation is more carbon dioxide in the world's atmosphere.

It means that before the European leaders negotiate at the 2009 Copenhagen summit on climate change, they will have a fallback position.

The European Union would still go ahead with proposals to cut carbon dioxide emissions but there will be plans in place either to impose tariffs on carbon intensive goods from countries that won’t sign up, or to exempt certain industries from the general EU rules.

One would outrage the free traders, the other would annoy environmentalists.

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