The European Commission has recently promoted a public consultation in the framework of the initiative on the strengthening of the European Child Guarantee (ECG), a key pillar of the forthcoming EU Anti-Poverty Strategy. The consultation aimed to gather evidence and stakeholders’ input to improve the implementation of this core instrument for protecting the rights of children in vulnerable situations.
The initiative, foreseen as a Commission Communication in 2026, responds to the worrying increase in the number of children at risk of poverty or social exclusion in the European Union, which now exceeds 19.5 million. Through this consultation process, the Commission sought to identify gaps in the implementation of the 2021 Council Recommendation establishing the European Child Guarantee and to define priorities for its strengthening, notably in areas such as early childhood education and care, education, nutrition, healthcare, housing, and governance.
A key opportunity to address Roma child poverty
The strengthening of the European Child Guarantee is particularly relevant for Roma children, who are disproportionately affected by poverty and social exclusion across the EU. The recent FRA’s 2024 Roma Survey indicates that 77 % of Roma children are at risk of poverty, while 40 % live in households experiencing severe material deprivation, reflecting longstanding structural inequalities.
Although the Child Guarantee explicitly recognises Roma children as a priority group, its implementation so far has not delivered a level of impact commensurate with these disparities. In this context, the strengthening of the Child Guarantee represents a strategic opportunity to advance more targeted, coherent and effective policies, capable of breaking the intergenerational cycle of poverty that continues to affect Roma children across Europe.
EURoma’s contribution
EURoma Network contributed to the consultation by submitting targeted inputs aimed at ensuring that the strengthening of the European Child Guarantee translates into tangible improvements for Roma children. Building on its long-standing work on EU funds, Roma inclusion and child poverty, EURoma underlined that Roma children must remain explicitly recognised as a priority group within the reinforced Child Guarantee framework, in line with the 2021 Council Recommendation.
In its contribution, EURoma stressed the need to preserve and strengthen targeted measures, avoiding the risk that actions addressing Roma children are diluted within broad universal approaches. It highlighted the importance of greater coherence between Child Guarantee National Action Plans and National Roma Strategic Frameworks, so that policies, funding and governance structures mutually reinforce one another. EURoma also emphasised the strategic use of EU funds, notably ESF+ and ERDF, to support integrated, place-based interventions addressing education, housing and access to essential services in the most deprived areas.
Finally, EURoma called for stronger monitoring and accountability mechanisms, including the development of specific indicators and the use of disaggregated data where legally possible, to ensure that progress for Roma children can be properly assessed.
Through this contribution, EURoma reaffirmed its commitment to a strengthened European Child Guarantee that effectively tackles the structural inequalities faced by Roma children and delivers measurable progress by 2030.
The full text of the EURoma contribution to a reinforced European Child Guarantee can be found here.
Further information:
- EURoma and Eurochild joint report on the consideration of Roma children in Child Guarantee implementation
- EUROMA Reference Document: How to guarantee that the European Child Guarantee efficiently tackles Roma children’s poverty and inequality gap?
