COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT, THE COUNCIL, THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMITTEE AND THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS Dial 116 000: The European hotline for missing children
Date: 2010-11-17
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: EU initiative, child, child protection, forced disappearance, free service, regulation of telecommunications, social services, telephone

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EUROPEAN COMMISSION 

Brussels, 17.11.2010 
COM(2010) 674 final 

COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN 
PARLIAMENT, THE COUNCIL, THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL 
COMMITTEE AND THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS 

Dial 116 000: The European hotline for missing children 

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   EN 

 
 
  
CONTENTS 

Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 3 

1. 

What are the obstacles preventing implementation of the 116000 hotline? ................ 4 

1.1. 

The steps for making the 116000 hotline operational.................................................. 4 

1.2.  Which problems have been identified? ........................................................................ 4 

1.2.1.  Lack of information...................................................................................................... 5 

1.2.2.  Cost of running the hotline........................................................................................... 5 

1.2.3.  Cost of calling the hotline ............................................................................................ 6 

2. 

Best practices ............................................................................................................... 6 

2.1.1.  Lack of information...................................................................................................... 6 

2.1.2.  Attribution Process....................................................................................................... 7 

2.1.3.  Running costs ............................................................................................................... 7 

2.1.4.  Telecom costs............................................................................................................... 7 

3. 

Common minimum standards guaranteeing a high quality of service......................... 7 

Conclusions ................................................................................................................................ 8 

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INTRODUCTION 

Every day children go missing all over the EU. But who should the parent of a missing child 
turn to for help? As more and more Europeans live, work and travel in other EU countries, it 
is  increasingly  important  that  access  to  essential  services  does  not  depend  on  ‘local 
knowledge’. Hotlines to report missing children already exist in several Member States, but 
the number to call differs from one country to another.  

On  15  February  2007,  the  Commission  adopted  a  Decision1  requiring  Member  States  to 
reserve  the  six-digit  number  range  starting  with  116  for  services  of  social  value  in  the  EU. 
116000  was  the  first  telephone  number  reserved  in all  Member  States  as  a  hotline  to  report 
missing children. This was one of the first practical measures adopted under the Commission 
Communication  ‘Towards  an  EU  Strategy  on  the  Rights  of  the  Child’2.  The  combination 
‘same number — same service’ aims to ensure that the same service is always associated with 
the same number across the entire European Union. Having the same hotline number will help 
children  and  parents  in  distress  to  find  help  when  outside  their  Member  State  of  origin,  for 
example if a child goes missing during a family holiday. 

In  June  2008,  the  Commission  asked  Member  States3  to  provide  detailed  data  on  the 
implementation of the 116000 hotline. The results of the survey showed that Member States 
had  done  little  to  make  the  availability  of  the  number  known.  This  has  delayed  the 
implementation  of  the  missing  children  hotline  across  the  EU.  The  revision  of  the  ‘telecom 
package’  adopted  in  November  2009  inserted  a  new  obligation4  for  the  Member  States 
requiring them to make every effort to ensure that the hotline is activated. The deadline for 
transposition  of  this  provision  by  Member  States  is  25  May  2011.  The  goal  of  the 
Commission is to ensure that the 116000 hotline is made fully operational everywhere in the 
EU. 

More  than  three  years  after  the  adoption  of  the  Commission  Decision  2007/116/EC,  the 
situation is far from being satisfactory. The 116000 hotline is currently operational only in 13 

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Commission  Decision  2007/116/EC  of  15  February  2007  on  reserving  the  national  numbering  range 
beginning  with  116  for  harmonised  numbers  for  harmonised  services  of  social  value,  OJ  L  49, 
17.2.2007, p. 30–33, as last amended by Commission Decision 2009/884/EC. For more information see 
also http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/policy/ecomm/current/pan_european/index_en.htm  
Commission Communication COM(2006) 367final of 4 July 2006: "Towards an EU Strategy on the 
Rights of the Child", available at: 
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=COM:2006:0367:FIN:EN:PDF. 
The  Communications  Committee  was  set  up  by  Directive  2002/21/EC.  Through  this  Committee,  the 
Member  States  report  to  the  Commission  on  their  implementation  of  the  hotline  Communications  
Committee, 
08-18 
http://circa.europa.eu/Public/irc/infso/cocom1/library?l=/public_documents_2008 
Article  27a  of  the  Universal  Service  Directive  (Directive  2009/136/EC  amending  Directive 
2002/22/EC) lays down that Member States shall promote the specific numbers in the numbering range 
beginning with "116"; shall encourage the provision within their territory of the services for which such 
numbers are reserved; shall ensure that disabled end-users are able to access services and that citizens 
are  adequately  informed  of  the  existence  and  use  of  services.  In  addition  to  measures  of  general 
applicability  to  all  numbers  in  the  "116"  numbering  range  Member  States  shall  make  every  effort  to 
ensure that citizens have access to a service operating a hotline to report cases of missing children. The 
hotline shall be available on the number "116000". OJ L 337/11 18.12.2009 

COCOMM 

COCOMM 

08-06 

and 

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Member States: Belgium, Denmark, France, Greece, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, 
Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Spain and the United Kingdom5.  

The purpose of this Communication is twofold. On the one hand, the Commission renews its 
call on the Member States to implement the missing children hotline as a matter of priority. 
On the other hand, the Commission intends to ensure that the same high quality of service is 
offered throughout the Union. 

To  this  end  the  Commission  intends  to  provide  practical  support  to  the  Member  States  that 
have  not  yet  implemented  the  hotline  by  bringing  to  light  the  problems  that  have  been 
identified so far and by facilitating the exchange of best practice.  

The  Communication  is  structured  in  three  sections:  the  first  section  identifies  the  obstacles 
preventing the implementation of the hotline in those Member States where the service is still 
not operational. The second section identifies best practices and solutions to help the Member 
States  concerned  to  overcome  the  obstacles  identified.  The  third  section  proposes  common 
minimum standards guaranteeing a high quality of service for the hotline. 

1. 

WHAT  ARE  THE  OBSTACLES  PREVENTING  IMPLEMENTATION  OF  THE  116000 
HOTLINE? 

1.1. 

The steps for making the 116000 hotline operational 

Under the terms of Commission Decision 2007/116/EC ("the Decision"), Member States are 
required to reserve the number 116000 for the missing children hotline. Once the necessary 
preparatory steps have been taken, the Member States are then required to make it known that 
the  number  is  available  for  attribution,  so  that  applications  for  the  right  to  use  this  number 
may be submitted. The deadline to comply with these requirements was 31 August 2007. All 
Member States have completed this step. 

The  Member  States  are  then  required  to  assign  the  number  to  an  organisation  (such  as  an 
NGO or a telecom operator). To date, only 14 Member States6 have completed this step. 

Following this assignment, the Member States should make every effort to make sure that the 
hotline is fully operational.  

1.2.  Which problems have been identified? 

The  Communications  Committee  set  up  by  Directive  2002/21/EC  on  a  common  regulatory 
framework for electronic communications networks and services provides the means for the 
Member States to report back to the Commission on their implementation of the hotline. 

On 29 June 2010, the Commission sent a questionnaire to the Member States and to over 30 
organisations in charge of providing services of social value through the 116 numbers7. The 
purpose of the questionnaire was to gather information on i) costs (both overall and telecoms 

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In United Kingdom the hotline is partially operational 
Belgium, Denmark, France, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, 
Slovakia, Spain and the United Kingdom 
Communications  Committee  COCOMM10-30,  14  October  2010.  Report 
http://circa.europa.eu/Public/irc/infso/cocom1/library?l=/public_documents_2010  

available 

at: 

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specific costs), ii) financing of the service, iii) number of calls managed, iv) technical aspects 
and v) other relevant issues. 

Based on the information gathered, two key issues appear to be delaying the implementation 
of the missing children hotline: lack of information and cost.  

1.2.1.  Lack of information 

Lack of information about the existence of the reserved 116000 number for missing children 
hotlines  is  reported  by  several  service  providers  as  hampering  or  slowing  down  the 
assignment  process.  This  finding  is  confirmed  by  a  recent  study  co-financed  under  the 
Daphne  III  Programme  carried  out  by  Missing  Children  Europe8,  and  by  the  preliminary 
results  of  the  study  ‘Evaluation  of  the  Impact  of  the  EU  Instruments  Affecting  Children’s 
Rights’9. 

According to the respondents, lack of information has led to fewer applications from potential 
service  providers  because  they  were  not  aware  of  the  availability  of  the  number.  Potential 
service  providers  have  also  been  struggling  with  lack  of  information  about  which  public 
authorities  to  contact  in  order  to  apply  for  assignment,  lack  of  information  about  the 
procedures to follow and lack of coordination between the Member State authorities and the 
national regulatory authorities. 

Lack  of  awareness  of  the  missing  children  hotlines  among  the  general  public  has  also  been 
identified as a problem. 

1.2.2.  Cost of running the hotline  

The main difficulty identified by the service providers is the cost of running the hotline. They 
indicated that financing is one of the factors hindering the introduction and operation of the 
hotlines. 

The  Decision  describes  the  116000  service  as  follows:  the  service  (a)  takes  calls  reporting 
missing  children  and  passes  them  on  to  the  Police;  (b)  offers  guidance  to  and  supports  the 
persons  responsible  for  the  missing  child;  (c)  supports  the  investigation.  Moreover  a  specific 
condition  attached  to  the  right  of  use  of  the  116000  requires  that  the  service  is  available  24/7 
nationwide. The respondents have pointed out that this requirement implies having trained staff 
and specific know-how that are not readily available for free through the help of volunteers. The 
respondents have also pointed out that the service should not just be available in the language of 
the Member State concerned (EU citizens travelling to another Member State often do not speak 
the  language  of  that  Member  State).  Costs  related  to  language  training  for  staff  can  also  be 
substantial. 

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Missing Children Europe is the European Federation for Missing and Sexually Exploited Children. As 
an umbrella organisation, it represents 24 Non Governmental Organisations active in 16 Member States 
of the European Union and Switzerland. 
The Lithuanian Public Policy and Management Institute is carrying out for the Commission an 
‘Evaluation of the Impact of the EU Instruments Affecting Children’s Rights with a View to Assessing 
the Level of Protection and Promotion of Children’s Rights in the EU’. The final report will be  
published at: 
http://ec.europa.eu/justice/policies/children/policies_children_intro_en.htm. 

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The  service  providers  are  not  always  in  a  position  to  sustain  the  staffing  and  other 
administrative costs for the hotlines. In some cases telecommunications costs may also have to 
be  borne  by  the  service  providers  (this  is  estimated  to  represent  around  5%  of  the  overall 
budget10).  

The  three  main  sources  of  available  financing  are:  public  funding,  Corporate  Social 
Responsibility (CSR) schemes and private funds. The financing arrangements vary among the 
Member States.  

1.2.3.  Cost of calling the hotline 

Most  of  the  service  providers  indicated  that  the  116000  hotline  may  not  necessarily  be 
available  for  users  of  mobile  roaming  and  for  persons  calling  from  abroad  (international 
calls). This would defeat the purpose of the single 116000 number, as travelling parents and 
children would not be able to call the hotline from their mobile phones, for example. 

Helpline organisations or sponsoring telecom operators may not be willing (or able) to cover 
the costs of these calls. Since the 116000 hotline is required to be a freephone number, the cost 
of the call is normally borne by the service provider receiving the calls. This may be difficult for 
service  providers  which  have  charitable  status,  given  that  communication  costs  related  to 
roaming can place a significant burden on their resources.  

The regulatory treatment of freephone numbers differs between Member States and freephone 
designation does not guarantee that access to the number is actually free of charge to all types 
of  callers.  The  Decision  does  not  impose  any  obligation  as  such  on  the  Member  States  to 
ensure that calls to the missing children hotline are free of charge. This is in contrast with the 
EU legal framework applicable to the 112 emergency numbers, which requires that Member 
States  ensure  that  end-users  are  able  to  call  the  emergency  services  free  of  charge  in  all 
situations. 

Another issue identified by the respondents in connection with the situation of mobile users 
travelling through or to another Member State is linked to the lack of existing agreements to 
cover the roaming costs.  

2. 

BEST PRACTICES  

Based  on  the  feedback  from  the  Communications  Committee,  the  outcome  of  the 
questionnaire,  and  the  findings  of  the  Daphne  III  study  carried  out  by  Missing  Children 
Europe,  examples  of  good  practices  on  how  to  address  the  main  problems  exist  in  several 
Member States.  

2.1.1.  Lack of information 

On  the  25  May  2009  Missing  Children  Europe,  with  the  support  of  the  Daphne  III 
programme,  launched  a  broad  campaign  to  raise  public  awareness  of  the  hotline  by 
distributing posters, flyers and bracelets in 10 Member States. 

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Source: Communications Committee COCOMM10-30, 14 October 2010.  

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In  2009,  France  launched  an  information  campaign  involving  distribution  of  more  than 
50.000 posters and coordinated actions with the police and the gendarmerie.  

2.1.2.  Attribution Process 

Hungarian  authorities  organised  a  conference  with  Hungarian  telecom  operators  on  the 
introduction  of  116000  in  the  Hungarian  numbering  system.  The British National Regulatory 
Authority asked the UK Government to assist them in the selection for assigning the hotline to a 
service provider. 

In some countries National Regulatory Authorities work with the Ministry of the Interior to 
make sure that the best service provider is selected for the hotline by using a grid with specific 
criteria (France). 

2.1.3.  Running costs 

In Hungary the overall cost of the hotline service is partly financed by public funding, as part 
of the national programme for the protection of children’s rights. 

In Portugal the service operator managed to obtain public funding for the entire running of 
the service. 

In Belgium the operator receives an annually renewable grant from the National Lottery and 
works on the basis of a public-private partnership. 

The Greek service provider runs the service without bearing any cost, as all costs are covered 
by the telecom operator under its corporate social responsibility programme. 

Some  Member  States  (e.g.  Belgium  and  France)  have  converted  the  hotline  into  an 
emergency  number,  i.e.  have  switched  their  previous  emergency  line  to  the  hotline.  As  an 
emergency line, public funding covers the costs and the service is provided on the basis of a 
public-private partnership.  

2.1.4.  Telecom costs 

The telecom operators in Portugal and Romania have agreed to cover the telephone costs. In 
Poland  all  mobile  phone  operators  have  agreed  not  to  charge  the  telephone  costs  to  the 
service  provider.  As  a  result,  the  service  is  free  of  charge  for  the  caller  and  for  the  service 
provider. 

In  Hungary  the  service  provider  has  agreed  to  negotiate  a  ‘commercial  price’  which  was 
defined as the minimum price charged to a medium-sized business customer. 

3. 

COMMON MINIMUM STANDARDS GUARANTEEING A HIGH QUALITY OF SERVICE  

Once the hotline is operational in every Member State, it is important to deliver a high-quality 
service throughout the European Union, so that parents and children  can  count  on the same 
assistance,  no  matter  where  they  are.  Although  the  Decision  underlines  the  need  for  people 
travelling across Europe to have the same service at their disposal, there is evidence that the 
existing hotlines offer different services to callers for help after a child has disappeared.  

In  addition  to  the  requirements  enshrined  in  the  Decision  (service  to  be  available  24/7  and 
nationwide)  and  in  other  relevant  applicable  legislation,  such  as  data  protection  rules,  a 

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number  of  minimum  standards  guaranteeing a high quality of service can  be identified,  and 
best practices are already crystallising based on experience in several Member States: 

–  The service must be available in the language of the Member State and at least in English. 

For  example,  in  Romania,  the  service  is  available  also  in  French,  English  and  Spanish.  In 
Greece the service is available also in English.  

–  The members of staff of the service provider must be trained to perform the tasks they have 
been assigned, including specific training on how to deal with children in a way tailored to 
the age and maturity of the child.  

Targeted training is organised for operators in Romania, Hungary and Spain where staff are 
usually  social  workers  and  psychologists. Hotline  operators  receive  training  on  procedural 
rules  and  on  how  to  respond  to  calls,  coping  with  the  caller's  emotions  such  as  anger  and 
panic.  

–  Transnational cases must be redirected to the relevant authorities.  

–  Follow-up must be offered after the case is closed, where appropriate.  

Although  not  formalised,  the  Belgian  service  provider  follows  up  on  individual  cases  by 
phone so as to re-orient the child and/or the family to other services or organizations which 
can provide them with further support. 

–  A  cooperation  agreement  must  be  signed  between  the  service  provider  and  the  national 

enforcement and/or judiciary authorities. 

Examples of agreements between service providers and national enforcement and/or judiciary 
authorities exist in Romania, Spain, France, Portugal and Belgium. 

CONCLUSIONS 

The  telecom  reform  package  empowers  the  Commission  to  adopt  technical  implementing 
measures to ensure the effective implementation of the "116" numbering range, in particular 
the  missing  children  hotline  number  116000.  This  shall  be  without  prejudice  to,  and  shall 
have no impact on, the organisation of these services, which remain the exclusive competence 
of Member States.  

The  Commission  will  continue  to  provide  support  to  the  Member  States  for  the  swift 
introduction  and  full  functioning  of  missing  children  hotlines.  To  this  end,  the  Commission 
will  continue  to  monitor  and  assess  the  situation  through  the  work  of  the  Communications 
Committee. 

The Commission will also organise yearly high-level meetings with all stakeholders until the 
hotline is operational in every Member State. The purpose of these meetings will be to raise 
awareness, to allow exchanges of best practice and to identify practical tools to ensure that the 
missing  children  hotline  becomes  operational  and  that  it  offers  a  high-quality  service  in  all 
Member States. These meetings will be held around 25 May every year to mark International 
Missing Children’s Day and to express solidarity with missing children and their families. 

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The Commission is committed to making the missing children hotline fully operational across 
the  EU  and  will  continue  to  closely  monitor  progress  made  at  national  level.  If  no  further 
progress is made within a reasonable timeframe, the Commission will consider presenting a 
legislative proposal to make sure that for every child and for every parent help is truly only a 
phone call away, wherever they may be in the EU. 

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ANNEX 

State of implementation for 116000 

Member State 

116000 
Assigned 

116000 
Operational 

Austria 

Belgium 
Bulgaria 
Cyprus 
Czech Republic 
Denmark 
Estonia 
Finland 
France 
Germany 
Greece 
Hungary 
Ireland 
Italy 
Latvia 
Lithuania 
Luxembourg 
Malta 
Netherlands 
Poland 
Portugal 
Romania 
Slovakia 
Slovenia 
Spain 
Sweden 
United Kingdom 

11 

Partially operational 

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X 

X 

X 
X 

X 

X 
X 
X 
X 
X 

X 

X11 

X 

X 

X 

X 
X 

X 

X 
X 
X 
X 
X 
X 

X 

X 

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