The European Child Guarantee is the EU’s main tool to combat child disadvantages. It aims to ensure that every child at risk of poverty or social exclusion in Europe has access to services which are key to their well-being and development.
Child poverty in the EU remains high with no meaningful decline over the last five years. The consequences of growing up in precarious conditions are severe and long-lasting.
As part of the European Commission’s first EU Anti-Poverty Strategy, the European Child Guarantee was strengthened in 2026 to address these challenges and break the cycle of poverty.
The Staff Working Document accompanying the communication provides an analysis of the implementation of the European Child Guarantee so far.
Main actions
The strengthened European Child Guarantee aims to address the social emergency of persistent child poverty and the needs of vulnerable children through
Better access to quality childcare and more efficient child benefits
Ensuring that all vulnerable children have access to the services they need to reach their full potential and protecting them from growing threats
Smoother transition to adulthood, with extended support
Boosting investment and strengthening the governance framework to ensure that the increasing cost of living does not drive more families with children into poverty
Key objective of the European Child Guarantee
The European Child Guarantee aims to prevent and combat social exclusion by guaranteeing effective access of children in need to a set of key services
- free early childhood education and care
- free education (including school-based activities and at least one healthy meal each school day)
- free healthcare
- healthy nutrition
- adequate housing
While most children in the EU already have access to these services, inclusive and truly universal access is vital for ensuring equal opportunities for all children and in particular those who experience social exclusion due to poverty or other forms of a disadvantage.
European Child Guarantee in EU countries
To implement the recommendation, the EU countries have nominated their Child Guarantee Coordinators and prepared national action plans, which cover the period until 2030.
EU countries with a level of child poverty above the EU average (23,4% - AROPE 2017–2019) should allocate at least 5% of their European Social Fund (ESF+) resources to tackle child poverty.
On the other hand, all the other EU countries are required to allocate an appropriate amount of their ESF+ resources to combat child poverty.
Funding under the ESF+ may be used to test or upscale initiatives to improve access to these services or enable more effective use of national, regional and local budgets. In addition, the ESF+ should be used to help EU countries develop new or improved mainline services and programmes to better reach children at risk of poverty or social exclusion.
Preparatory Action
On the request of the European Parliament, which called for a child guarantee that would help ensure that every child in Europe at risk of poverty or social exclusion has access to free healthcare, education, early childhood education and care, decent housing and adequate nutrition the European Commission designed a three-phase Preparatory Action to analyse the feasibility, financing and implementation of such a scheme in the EU.
Phase I
Phase I assessed the feasibility, efficiency and overall benefits of an EU Child Guarantee Scheme and made concrete suggestions for improving policies and programmes at EU and (sub-)national levels.
It focused on access by four groups of children to the five social rights identified by the European Parliament: children with disabilities, children residing in institutions, children with a migrant background (incl. refugee children), and children living in precarious family situations. The deliverables of Phase I include:
- Target group discussion paper on children in alternative care
- Target group discussion paper on children with disabilities
- Target group discussion paper on children living in precarious family situations
- Target group discussion paper on children with a migrant background (including refugee children)
- Children’s voices: learning and conclusions from four consultations with children
- Report on the online consultation
- Case studies on the effectiveness of funding programmes
- Feasibility study for a child guarantee – Final report
Phase II
Phase II of the Preparatory Action produced a detailed study exploring costs and benefits of the free provision of:
- education including school-based activities and full meals
- early childhood education and care
- regular health examinations and follow-up treatment to all children at risk of poverty or social exclusion, as well as of
- providing services aimed at preventing and fighting child homelessness.
The deliverables of Phase II include:
Phase III
For the Phase III of the Preparatory Action, the European Commission has partnered with the UNICEF. The aim of this phase is to test how the European Child Guarantee could work in practice and provide recommendations for its successful design and implementation.
As part of this engagement, UNICEF has been working since July 2020 with national and local governments from seven EU countries (Bulgaria, Croatia, Germany, Greece, Italy, Lithuania, and Spain) and key national and local stakeholders in these countries.
Notably, seven 'policy deep dive' country studies have been carried out, contributing to the development of the national action plans on implementation of the European Child Guarantee.
The deliverables of Phase III include:
- A Rapid Evidence Assessment on Policy Integration and Coordination to Inform the European Child Guarantee
- A Deep Dive into the European Child Guarantee – Bulgaria
- A Deep Dive into the European Child Guarantee – Croatia
- A Deep Dive into the European Child Guarantee – Germany
- A Deep Dive into the European Child Guarantee – Greece
- A Deep Dive into the European Child Guarantee – Italy
- A Deep Dive into the European Child Guarantee – Lithuania
- A Deep Dive into the European Child Guarantee – Spain
Monitoring framework
In line with Article 12(d) of the Recommendation, Commission and the Social Protection Committee (SPC) have established a common monitoring framework to assess progress with implementation of child guarantee.
The monitoring framework, endorsed by the SPC in November 2023, features seven sections:
- the first section is dedicated to tracing the size and situation of the child guarantee target group (children in need)
- the remaining sections focus on monitoring access to the six services covered by the child guarantee:
- early childhood education and care
- education (including school-based activities)
- at least one healthy meal per school day
- healthcare
- healthy nutrition
- adequate housing
The monitoring framework makes use of currently available EU indicators, but not all of them enjoy the same level of comparability and reliability.
In addition to EU indicators, use is also made of data collected from sources outside the European Statistical System. These data should be interpreted accordingly, taking into account potential limitations.
To facilitate the monitoring of the implementation of the European Child Guarantee, the Indicators Sub-Group of SPC agreed on the usefulness of prioritising the child-specific indicators over the household-based ones.
The group jointly prepared with the European Commission a first version of a monitoring framework. The most recent update from autumn 2025 can be found here.
National action plans and progress reports
Article 11(c) of the Council Recommendation establishing a European Child Guarantee asks the Member States to submit action plans on how they will to implement the child guarantee.
The action plans should cover the period until 2030 and take into account national, regional and local circumstances as well as existing policy actions and measures to support children in need.
The main purpose of the national action plans is to describe the existing and planned national and subnational policy measures, which aim to improve access of children in need to the set of key services covered by the European Child Guarantee.
In addition, the Recommendation invites EU countries to report every two years on progress achieved in implementing the child guarantee. The national action plans and progress reports submitted by the EU countries are available for consultation.
National action plans and progress reports
European Child Guarantee beyond EU
The concept of the European Child Guarantee has also gained recognition beyond the EU. It is now being implemented in candidate countries and potential candidates, all of which have appointed national contact points, are developing their national action plans, and are collaborating with Child Guarantee Coordinators from EU countries, drawing on shared experiences and best practices.
Background
In 2019 Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced in her Political Guidelines the creation of a European Child Guarantee with a view to ensuring that every child in Europe at risk of poverty or social exclusion has access to the most basic of rights like healthcare and education.
On 24 March 2021, after consultations with key stakeholders including children themselves, the European Commission adopted a proposal for a Council Recommendation establishing a European Child Guarantee, along with the supporting Staff Working Document. The Council adopted the proposed Recommendation on 14 June 2021.
Related Documents
The EU and Member States are implementing policies to combat child poverty, also supported by EU funding. A cornerstone policy tool is the European Child Guarantee.
