BRUSSELS – EU Justice Ministers have agreed to create a European paedophile register.

They agreed on Monday to set up the central database, which will prevent known paedophiles from gaining access to jobs in educational establishments in all 25 EU countries.

The case of French former carpenter Michel Fourniret, who has confessed to nine murders on both sides of the Franco-Belgian border, has thrown a spotlight on the lack of a common EU-wide register for sex offenders.

Fourniret is being held in Belgium for the killings of young girls between 1987 and 2001.

He moved to Belgium in the 1980s after serving time in France for child sex offences, but was given a job in a Belgian school by authorities, who were unaware of his criminal record.

Belgian King Albert II gave his implicit support to the new initiative on Tuesday when he called on European countries to work more closely together in the aftermath of the discovery of Fourniret’s crimes.

Speaking the day before Belgium’s national holiday he spoke of the “emotion” he and Queen Paola felt over the affair and sent his condolences to families of Fourniret’s victims.

“We ask that these tragic events lead to European mobilisation,” the King said.

“The whole (European) union should fight this horrible criminality. Judicial cooperation between countries and a European criminal record system should become a reality,” he added.

[Copyright Expatica 2004]

Subject: Belgian news