Delivering on the European Child Guarantee: Implementation, practice and priorities
Taken from "Unequal Childhoods: Rights on paper should be rights in practice" Eurochild 2025 flagship report on children in need across Europe.
Launched in 2021, the European Child Guarantee (ECG) aims to ensure that children in need can access key services, including education, healthcare, nutrition, housing, and early childhood care, while targeting children living in poverty, those with disabilities, those from migrant or minority backgrounds, those experiencing homelessness, and those in alternative care. Four years on, progress remains uneven. While some countries have improved coordination and access to services, persistent challenges remain around data availability, child participation and sustainable investment. Despite long-standing commitments, around 19 million children in the EU continue to experience poverty, discrimination and unequal access to these key services, particularly those facing multiple disadvantages.
This sub-report reviews the implementation of the ECG, drawing on input from Eurochild members who shared challenges and promising good practices from their national contexts. It identifies common themes, recommendations and remaining gaps, and highlights good practices from across the EU and other European countries. It also outlines the role the European Semester process can play in strengthening the ECG. The report aims to support policymakers, practitioners and stakeholders in improving implementation, building on what works, and ensuring the ECG delivers lasting, meaningful changes for children in vulnerable situations across Europe.
Overall Converging Recommendations
Across countries, five core priorities emerge:
- Move from coordination on paper to systemic, cross-sector implementation.
- Ensure sustainable, structural funding rather than short-term project logic.
- Strengthen monitoring, data collection and accountability mechanisms.
- Guarantee meaningful participation of civil society, children, and families.
- Target the most vulnerable children through integrated, preventive approaches.
