A European Union official called on justice ministers of the 27 member nations Tuesday to agree on plans for a bloc-wide early warning system to report missing children.

Under the EU alert network plan drafted last year, based on the U.S. “Amber Alert” system, policing authorities would work to make their national networks more compatible to improve cross-border searches.

Police and justice officials could use a hot line system to raise a public alarm when a child is believed to have been taken to another country in the bloc. Television, radio and highway signs can be used to announce names or show pictures of missing children.

The only nations to have signed up so far are France, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Belgium, Portugal and Greece.

Jacques Barrot, the EU’s justice and home affairs commissioner, appealed to the ministers at two-day talks in Cannes, France, to put the guidelines in place. He wants the entire bloc to adopt the plan by next year.

“The effectiveness of this system has been proven, because missing children are found more quickly,” Barrot said.

French Justice Minister Rachida Dati, chairing Tuesday’s meeting, presented the ministers with a video to show the effectiveness of a Europe-wide child alert system.

Many EU nations have hesitated to join up.

Germany has said such a plan is unnecessary and that statistics show that in most cases missing children turn up after a few days. But German Justice Minister Brigitte Zypries says her country could now accept the plan if it were on a case by case basis.

“The alarm shall only be activated if there is evidence for real necessity. But there won’t be strict rules,” Zypries said. She said figures show that most children are found within two days and had not been kidnapped.

Other EU nations have not put in place special police units that can communicate with other European counterparts about abductions _ a key requirement for a European alert network.

The plan has the backing of the parents of missing British girl Madeleine McCann, who supported calls for an alert network and a hot line to report missing children.

Madeleine disappeared from a Portuguese resort in May 2007, and her case has attracted international media attention.

Thousands of children disappear in the EU every year.

In Belgium, 3,600 children went missing in 2006, including runaways, abductions and cases of sexual abuse. In France, 45,000 cases of child disappearances were registered in the same year, according to Missing Children Europe.