Amendments submitted by the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group to a European Parliament resolution on child recruitment by organised crime fundamentally reframe the text, replacing socio-economic root causes with illegal migration as a primary driver and rejecting automatic victim status for children involved in serious gang crime. The changes, published on 12 June 2026, would weaken commitments to preventive funding, narrow the definition of vulnerable children, and prioritise repatriation of migrant minors over protection.
The resolution, originally drafted with a focus on poverty, inequality, and underinvestment in public services as root causes, faces a direct challenge from the ECR amendments. Amendment 10 replaces references to these socio-economic factors with "mass and illegal migration" and downgrades the commitment to "increase financial support" for prevention programmes to merely "consider financial support." Amendment 4 strips references to "socio-economic exclusion" and replaces "children in migration" with "illegal migrants," narrowing the scope of vulnerable groups.
Legal status of recruited children Amendment 6 rejects the principle that children involved in serious gang crime should be treated "exclusively as victimhood," stressing that vulnerability may be relevant to sentencing but "must never result in impunity" for specific serious offences such as murder, bombings, and rape. This directly contradicts the original draft's victim-centred approach.
Victim compensation and migrant children Amendments 7 and 8 introduce new demands for a victim-centred approach where compensation is central to sentencing, with compensation orders enforceable into adulthood and across borders without limitation periods. Amendment 9 shifts the response to migrant children from safe reporting channels, guardianship, and legal assistance to helping unaccompanied and migrant minors "return to their country to reunite swiftly with their families," prioritising repatriation over protection.
Role of families Amendment 5 adds "stable families" to the list of protective factors, reinforcing a traditional family structure emphasis.
As only the ECR group submitted amendments, no inter-group comparison is possible. The amendments represent a clear departure from the original socially progressive draft. The resolution will be debated and voted on in plenary at a later date, with the final text depending on the balance of political groups.
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