European Union countries have endorsed a plan to introduce next year a single bloc-wide hotline number to signal for missing children.

Representatives of the 25 member states backed Wednesday the initiative to reserve a series of free phone numbers for "services of social value".

The first step is to introduce the 116000 number for hotlines for missing children throughout the European Union. The Commission asked the states to make the initiative for children's rights a reality as soon as possible.

The news comes as a dream coming true for the father of a Bulgarian child who went missing nine years ago.

Ever since young Savestin went missing, Deyanov has persisted in a public campaign to draw attention to child trafficking in Bulgaria.

The devastated father has blamed Bulgarian authorities being dormant and doing nothing to bring back abducted youngsters.

He has reached as far as threatening to set himself on fire in front of the building of the European Commission in Brussels to show he has run out of means to urge for more action on this widespread criminal activity.

In August Deyanov won a lawsuit against Bulgaria after the Court ruled that the inaction of the authorities in his case was a violation of the Constitution, and of child protection laws.

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