On an European legal status for protection officers for adults 

The petitioner highlights that in France around 800.000 adult persons are under protection measures, and that, according to him, in 75 % of the cases, maladministration, fraud, violence or abuse of power by the so-called protection officers or structures results in an economic misappropriation of goods of a value of several millions to the benefit of the mandated structure and to the detriment of the ‘protected’ beneficiaries. The petitioner also refers to the failing control mechanisms, as the services in charge of the verification of the related annual accounts do not have enough time nor staff available. The protection officer can represent the adult under protection for a specific number of acts or the representation can be global. The protection officer is appointed by the Court, after having heard the Opinion of the Civil prosecutor. The adult to be protected is not informed on the procedure. The petitioner further states that the appointment of the protection officer by the Court undermines the supervision activities by the same court, together with a legislation that allegedly has serious gaps, leaving the possibility to abuses widely open. The protection officer should be guided by the rule of diligence, but according to the petitioner, this is not the case. The relevant authorities allegedly systematically dismiss family members pointing at mismanagement related to their family members under protection. The petitioner refers to the Charter and the Convention on human rights, as he sees a number of absolute personal rights infringed, leading to the negation of the existence of the protected person. In this context the petitioner, based on the reporting received by the NGO, calls for the EU to examine the possibility to establish EU-wide a legal status for protection officers for adult persons as soon as possible, ensuring protection of the human dignity of the protected persons, intrinsic to their vulnerability.