Access & reimbursement
CGM exists. Access to it is rationed by postcode.
Even where devices are on the market, coverage stops short — and the further you get from insulin-treated type 1 diabetes, the thinner it becomes.
Who is covered
Coverage narrows fast.
European countries reimburse real-time CGMs for people with type 1 diabetes.
reimburse flash glucose monitors for people living with type 2 diabetes.
extend reimbursement to T2D on insulin — the group with the strongest clinical case.
The gap is sharper outside the EU, where access is "often restricted to specific groups, such as children or some people living with type 1 diabetes" — geography, not medical need, decides who gets a sensor.
Source: IDF Europe, Compendium of Country Profiles (2025), Chapter 3.
The availability snapshot
The tools exist. Availability doesn't.
Meters and test strips are near-universal. Flash and real-time CGM access is not — the same pattern we see globally.
Availability snapshot
Availability of blood glucose monitoring tools across Europe
% of European countries
Computed from the country table below. Source: IDF Europe Diabetes Compendium — Table 7.
Country by country
| Austria | ||||
| Belgium | ||||
| Bulgaria | ||||
| Croatia | ||||
| Cyprus | ||||
| Denmark | ||||
| Estonia | ||||
| Finland | ||||
| France | ||||
| Germany | ||||
| Greece | ||||
| Hungary | ||||
| Ireland | ||||
| Italy | ||||
| Latvia | ||||
| Lithuania | ||||
| Luxembourg | ||||
| Malta | ||||
| Netherlands | ||||
| Poland | ||||
| Portugal | ||||
| Romania | ||||
| Slovakia | ||||
| Slovenia | ||||
| Spain | ||||
| Sweden |
| Albania | ||||
| Armenia | ||||
| Azerbaijan | ||||
| Belarus | ||||
| Bosnia and Herzegovina | ||||
| Faroe Islands | ||||
| Georgia | ||||
| Iceland | ||||
| Kazakhstan | ||||
| Kyrgyzstan | ||||
| North Macedonia | ||||
| Norway | ||||
| Republic of Moldova | ||||
| Serbia | ||||
| Switzerland | ||||
| Turkey | ||||
| Ukraine | ||||
| United Kingdom | ||||
| Uzbekistan |
Source: IDF Europe Diabetes Compendium — Table 7.
The clinical consensus
The science isn't the bottleneck.
Cardiology, endocrinology, paediatric and primary-care bodies have all landed on the same recommendation. Reimbursement hasn't kept up.
CGM is Class I, Level A for adults with T1D; Class I for adults with T2D on multiple daily insulin injections.
CGM should be offered to 100% of children and adolescents with T1D — from diagnosis, regardless of insulin delivery method.
For the first time, CGM is recommended for adults with diabetes who are not on insulin — and endorsed as a periodic behavioural-insight tool for people with prediabetes.
Diabetes technology is standard of care for anyone on intensive insulin therapy — and should be tailored, including periodic-use models, for people managing diabetes without insulin.
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Country spotlights