According to Europol, minors constitute 70% of the criminal market in the EU.

Error detected

The claim asserts that minors 'constitute 70% of the criminal market' (i.e., minors make up 70% of criminal market activity or share). What Europol actually states is that minors are involved in roughly 70% of criminal market types — a fundamentally different metric. This is a category error that changes the meaning of the statistic entirely.

The claim attributes to Europol a figure (minors as 70% of the criminal market) that does not appear in any Europol publication or communication.

Omissions

• The MEP omitted the crucial distinction between 'minors are involved in 70% of criminal market types' and 'minors constitute 70% of the criminal market'. The former describes how many distinct criminal markets have any minor participation; the latter would describe minors' share of total criminal activity — a statistic Europol has never published.
• The Europol finding says minors are 'involved to some extent', which could range from peripheral roles to leadership — the claim erases this nuance and implies minors dominate the criminal economy.
• The specific publication date of the Europol report or news release with the 70% figure could not be confirmed from the search snippets; however, the finding predates the session date of 2026-05-20.

Sources

• PrimaryEuropolData gathered from recent investigations shows that minors are involved in almost all criminal markets. The recruitment of minors into serious and organised crime and terrorism is not a new phenomenon; however, it has increasingly become a tactic used by criminal networks.
• SecondaryOCCRP (Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project)Roughly 70 percent of criminal markets now involve minors to some extent, Europol said.