Brussels, 14/06/2007 (Agence Europe) - In Luxembourg on Wednesday, EU justice ministers backed the adoption of stricter rules on the sale of violent video games to children, but did not want to commit themselves to common legislation. “There is broad consensus that much more needs to be done” to combat violent video games in Europe, said German Justice Minister Brigitte Zypries, following a meeting with her colleagues. She said there were wide differences in the legal standards across the EU for the sale of these games. Justice Commissioner Franco Frattini said he regretted that Germany was the only EU country to have a genuine blacklist of banned games. He argued for increased cooperation in this area, through developing common criteria for defining violent games, such as further restrictions on the age at which these games can be bought and increased warnings to parents. He also said he was for the involvement of Europol in the sharing of best practice, and also the support of Interpol, given the information at its disposal. Mr Frattini also called on member states to get the industry, producers and inventors of these games to cooperate on non-law enforcement issues. He rejected, however, harmonisation of European legislation. (bc)