2012 European Women's Handball Championship

Initially on its meeting on 27 September 2008 the EHF awarded the championship to the Netherlands, defeating Ukraine in the second round of voting while Germany and Serbia withdrew their candidacy during the congress.^[2] This could have been the second time for Netherlands to host the tournament,^[3] however, on 4 June 2012 the Dutch Handball Federation announced they are unable to organize the European Championship.^[4] A day later the EHF re-launched the host selection process;^[5] ten nations had shown interest in organizing the competition, including Croatia, Denmark, Iceland, Macedonia, Norway, Poland, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia and Sweden.^[6] Romania added their interest the day after.^[7] On 18 June 2012 the EHF granted the organizational rights to Serbia and also disposed of the fate of the Dutch national team. Since Serbia, the new host already qualified for the European Championship, the place reserved for the host nation was passed to Iceland as the best non-qualified team and the Netherlands were pulled out from the tournament.^[5]

Five venues in four cities had been selected to host the matches:^[8]

Group stage		Belgrade Niš Novi Sad Vršac
Vršac	Niš
Millennium Center Capacity: 4,000	Čair Sports Center Capacity: 5,000
Group&Knockout stage	Knockout stage
Novi Sad	Belgrade
Spens Sports Center Capacity: 11,500	Kombank Arena Capacity: 23,000

Qualification matches were played from September 2011 to June 2012. Following the new system introduced for the 2010 Men's Championship, all teams were included in the qualification round, except Netherlands who were hosts before the withdrawal.^[4] Teams were divided in 7 groups and the two top ranked teams from each group qualified.

Country	Qualified as	Date qualification was secured	Previous appearances in tournament1
Norway	01Defending champion	0019 December 2010	90 (1994, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010)
Croatia	02Winner of group 6	0024 March 2012	60 (1994, 1996, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010)
Czech Republic	02Runner-up of group 5	0025 March 2012	30 (1994, 2002, 2004)
Sweden	02Winner of group 5	0025 March 2012	70 (1994, 1996, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010)
Germany	02Winner of group 1	0030 May 2012	90 (1994, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010)
Hungary	02Runner-up of group 1	0030 May 2012	90 (1994, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010)
Romania	02Winner of group 2	0030 May 2012	80 (1994, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2008, 2010)
Serbia	02Runner-up of group 2	0030 May 2012	20 ( 2008, 2010)
France	02Winner of group 4	0030 May 2012	60 (2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010)
Denmark	02Runner-up of group 6	002 June 2012	90 (1994, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010)
Spain	02Runner-up of group 7	002 June 2012	60 (1998, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010)
Ukraine	02Winner of group 7	003 June 2012	90 (1994, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010)
Macedonia	02Runner-up of group 4	003 June 2012	40 (1998, 2000, 2006, 2008)
Montenegro	02Winner of group 3	003 June 2012	10 (2010)
Russia	02Runner-up of group 3	003 June 2012	90 (1994, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010)
Iceland	02Awarded final place[5]	0018 June 2012	10 (2010)

¹ Bold indicates champion for that year.

12 referee pairs were selected:^[10]

Referees Belarus Andrei Gousko Siarhei Repkin Croatia Helena Crnojević Emina Kostecki-Radić Czech Republic Jiří Opava Pavel Válek Denmark Marlene Kroløkke Lythje Karina Christiansen  France Charlotte Bonaventura Julie Bonaventura Hungary Péter Horvárth Balázs Márton

Referees Latvia Zigmārs Stoļarovs Renārs Līcis Poland Joanna Brehmer Agnieszka Skowronek Romania Diana-Carmen Florescu Anamaria Duţă Serbia Branka Marić Zorica Mašić Slovakia Peter Brunovský Vladimír Čanda  Spain Andreu Marín Ignacio García

The draw was scheduled to be held on 6 June 2012 at 14:00 local time in Rotterdam, Netherlands.^[11] The draw procedure was announced on 15 May.^[12][13] It was canceled because of the withdrawal of the Dutch Handball Federation.^[4] The draw was rescheduled to 22 June 2012 in Monaco.^[5] The pots were new assigned due to the removal of the Netherlands and the addition of Iceland.^[14]