End recruitment of children by organised crime

Drug trafficking, money laundering, children paid to commit violence - this happens to children as young as 12 years old in the EU. We have to prevent and end it. We welcome today’s adoption of a resolution to end the recruitment of children by organised crime. The new position of the EU parliament demands to impose prevention measures first, and enforce EU legislation online. “Europe's priority must be crystal clear: hunt down the recruiters, dismantle the criminal networks, and help exploited children instead of treating them as the masterminds of organised crime," said RenewMEP Hilde Vautmans after the vote.

The resolution calls for joint Europol and Eurojust investigations targeting the recruiters and network leaders. Its aim is simple -to stop criminal gangs from recruiting children, shut down the networks behind it, and make sure every exploited child is protected.

With concrete measures, the EU parliament urges the EU commission to: address the recruitment of children in the upcoming organised crime legislation; to ensure full enforcement of the Digital Services Act against platforms used to recruit minors, and use the Digital Fairness Act to close remaining gaps. It also calls to scale up existing evidence-based prevention models like EU-UNODC Protecting Futures programme, proven effective across fragile and conflict-affected contexts. The concrete measures are:

• Include child recruitment as a priority in the upcoming EU Action Plan on the Protection of Children against Crime.
• Add aggravating circumstances for child recruitment in the upcoming revision of organised crime rules.
• Intensify Europol and Eurojust cooperation in ports and logistics hubs, where children are systematically exploited by criminal networks.
• Revise the Pyrotechnics Directive: fireworks are now used as weapons by criminal gangs recruiting children.
• Fund and strengthen the 116 000 missing children hotline network -frontline partners in identifying children at risk and connecting them to protection services.

, said MEP Vautmans.

The new position of the parliament comes after Europol launched Operational Task Force GRIMM in April 2025 to coordinate with tech companies on detecting online recruitment of children. Liberals and Democrats continuously work to ensure that human rights and dignity are upheld, children are protected, and legislation is enforced.