Brussels, 22/11/2007 (Agence Europe) - The rapporteurs on two of the most important databases of Union, respectively Sarah Ludford (ALDE, UK) for the “VIS” and Carlos Coelho (Portugal, EPP-ED) for the “SIS”, announced on Thursday 22 November that they had written a joint letter to the European Commission and the Council of the EU, urging them to learn lessons from the negligence recently committed by the British government when it lost a database containing details and tax information on several million of its citizens. Amongst other things, they call upon the EU to create solid data protection mechanisms for European databases and to ensure that real limitations, and strict guidelines, go hand-in-hand with the creation of hard copies. The data lost by the United Kingdom related to 25 million inhabitants and included 7.25 million surnames of parents and children, addresses, dates of birth, family allowance details, insurance number and, in certain cases, bank account details. (B.C)