Child Protection - Eurochild’s achievements in 2025
Annual Report 2025.
Eurochild continued to support the implementation of the EU Strategy on the Rights of the Child and the European Commission Recommendation on integrated child protection systems.
As part of this work, we developed a paper on violence against children, led a workshop presentation at the World Congress on Justice with Children 2025, and produced a dedicated sub-report on child protection, monitoring developments and practices across countries.
Eurochild also strengthened the capacity of its membership network and grassroots organisations to deliver child-rights advocacy and services through a combination of sub-granting, training and peer learning. Through the Daphne-CHILD programme, Eurochild began re-granting €1.3 million in financial support and tailored capacity building to 48 local civil society organisations across 9 countries. This enabled organisations to engage directly with children, strengthen safeguarding and child protection practices, and influence local and national child protection systems.
This work contributed to more sustainable, locally owned responses and aimed to expand the reach of child protection services to 23,000 children, 3,200 families and 1,800 professionals. Eurochild also organised regular capacity-building sessions and technical support for the 48 funded CSOs in order to strengthen organisational capacities, foster peer exchange and promote meaningful, inclusive and safe child participation as well as integrated child protection systems.
In parallel, targeted national initiatives showed how EU-level advocacy can translate into concrete local impact. In Bulgaria, the project supported by Tanya’s Dreams Fund worked closely with members and local stakeholders to address child poverty and risks of family separation, strengthen support services for families in adversity, including Roma families, and reinforce civil society engagement in the implementation of the Child Guarantee at national and municipal levels. This approach combined evidence, advocacy and direct community engagement to improve the effectiveness and coordination of services on the ground. In 2025, thanks to this project, we published a joint report with the EU Roma Network examining how Child Guarantee Biennial Reports address the situation of Roma children in 15 Member States.
We have also highlighted the Barriers to Civil Society Organisations’ participation in EU-Funded programmes in Bulgaria bringing these concerns forward through our EU-level advocacy and in key policy discussions with EU institutions. The high-level event in December 2025 marked the conclusion of a three-year transformation effort in Bulgaria and demonstrated that when political will, EU funding, civil society innovation, and lived experience align, meaningful and lasting change is possible.
Eurochild also participated in the EU Network for the Rights of the Child, organised by DG JUST, where we shared our work on children’s rights, including findings from our 2025 Flagship Report. In addition, we delivered a two-day training for Ukraine’s Coordination Center on how the EU accession process can be leveraged to support reform of child care and protection systems in Ukraine.
