Source: European Parliament
Question for written answer E-002034/2025
to the Commission
Rule 144
Mélanie Disdier (PfE), Fabrice Leggeri (PfE), Marie Dauchy (PfE), Mathilde Androuët (PfE)
Not a week goes by without a child in the EU being attacked by a sexual predator.
Currently, many European countries do not have a database listing every person convicted of crimes against children.
Worse still, sports club managers are neither obliged to request nor authorised to require a criminal record check from another Member State.
Given that the easiest way to be in contact with children is through sport, we urgently need to completely reassess the checks on coaches and managers to combat crimes against children.
Just recently in France, in the Dunkirk area, a Belgian educator, who had already been convicted of paedophilia by the Tournai criminal court, was able to work as a coach without the club’s managers being able to run a check on his past. Several reports, followed by complaints, revealed that the individual in question had already been convicted.
Does the Commission have plans for a system to check a person’s criminal record in other Member States, in particular their country of origin or residence, before they are employed in sensitive positions (for example, as educators working with children or as school bus drivers), as the person may have been convicted when working in such positions before?
Supporter[1]
Submitted: 21.5.2025
- [1] This question is supported by a Member other than the authors: Valérie Deloge (PfE)