Fine Gael MEP Mrs Mary Banotti has said she intends to bring the ongoing protest against Catholic schoolchildren in north Belfast to the attention of the European Parliament.
Speaking after accompanying parents and children past a silent loyalist protest to Holy Cross girls' primary school yesterday, Mrs Banotti said she had a particular responsibility for children's issues.
She said it was intimidating for children to have to walk to school through a corridor of police Land-Rovers.
"I feel I will have to inform the European Parliament about what is really happening here because no other event in Northern Ireland has caused so much concern. I have been approached by so many people looking to find out how something as frightful as this can actually be happening within the European Union," she said.
Following a meeting between senior police officers and representatives of the Concerned Residents of Upper Ardoyne (CRUA) over the weekend, yesterday's protests involving about 70 people were silent and marshalled by CRUA stewards.
In return the police, though still wearing body armour, agreed to shed their riot helmets and shields, and to ensure police vehicles did not block pavements.
CRUA spokesman Mr Stuart McCartney confirmed his organisation had been advised on tactics by the recently formed Loyalist Commission, which comprises leaders of loyalist paramilitaries along with church and community leaders.
"Obviously they are more experienced in how to negotiate things like this. They have been giving us a lot of support, a lot of advice on how to proceed," he said.
The chairman of the board of governors of Holy Cross, Father Aidan Troy, welcomed the absence of whistles and sirens at the protest, now in its 11th week, but he expressed concern the new approach might mark the beginning of a long period of less intense demonstrations.
"We have to be very careful that we are not settling for an acceptable level of protest because there is no acceptable level of protest against children," he said.
Mrs Isobel McGrann of the Right to Education group said the relatively low-key policing had left parents and children feeling vulnerable.
Meanwhile, four pupils from Holy Cross were among a cross community delegation of schoolchildren who met Archbishop Desmond Tutu at a Belfast hotel yesterday.
The archbishop is due to give a human rights lecture in the city today.
The North's Education Minister, meanwhile, has announced extra funding for Holy Cross and Wheatfield primary schools, which face each other across the Ardoyne Road.
The schools are to receive a total of £154,000, which will be used to pay for substitute teachers, classroom assistants, curriculum support for P7 pupils, and funding for respite activities for staff and students.