European Championship

The European Baseball Championship is a biennial tournament between the national teams of Confederation of European Baseball (CEB) members. It was first held in 1954, a year after the founding of the CEB. The competition has been dominated by the Netherlands and Italy which have combined to win 34 of the 37 Championships and placing one-two 20 times.

It has also served as the European qualification tournament for the Olympics since the Games' first tournament in 1984. In that year, Italy earned a spot in the Olympics as the 1983 tournament's winner. The second place team (the Netherlands) advanced to a play-out versus the third place nation at the 1983 Pan American Games. After 1987, the Netherlands received the European slot in the games as the tournament's winner. The second place team (Italy) advanced to a play-out versus the third place nation at the 1987 Pan American Games.

For the 1992 Olympics, with Italy earning a spot in the games as the 1991 tournament's winner. The second place team (the Netherlands) advanced a play-out versus the third place nation at the 1991 Pan American Games. Spain, the third-place team, was the Olympic host nation and also played.

For both the 1996 and 2000 Olympics, the top two teams from the previous year's Championships advanced to the Olympics. In both years the Netherlands and Italy finished in first and second place respectively.

The 2003 tournament also served as a pre-qualification tournament for the 2004 Olympics, with the top seven teams earning spots in the European Olympic Qualification Tournament. Greece, which placed second, was exempted due to it have already qualified as the host nation of the Olympics. The event was a qualifier for the 2008 Olympics and was a pre-qualifier for the 2020 Olympics (the top five teams going to the 2019 Europe/Africa Olympic Qualifier).

European Championships

Year	Host City	Dates	Teams	Gold	Silver	Bronze
1954	Antwerp, Belgium	June 26 - June 27	4	Italy	Spain	Belgium
1955	Barcelona, Spain	July 5 - July 10	5	Spain	Belgium	Germany
1956	Rome, Italy	July 10 - July 15	5	Netherlands	Belgium	Italy
1957	Mannheim, Germany	July 7 - July 13	5	Netherlands	Germany	Italy
1958	Amsterdam, Netherlands	June 5 - June 12	6	Netherlands	Italy	Germany
1960	Barcelona, Spain	September 22 - September 25	4	Netherlands	Italy	Spain
1962	Amsterdam, Netherlands	July 21 - July 29	7	Netherlands	Italy	Spain
1964	Milan, Italy	August 29 - September 6	5	Netherlands	Italy	Spain
1965	Madrid, Spain	August 29 - September 5	5	Netherlands	Italy	Germany
1967	Antwerp, Belgium	August 6 - August 12	5	Belgium	United Kingdom	Germany
1969	Wiesbaden, Germany	July 27 - August 3	7	Netherlands	Italy	Spain
1971	Parma and Bologna in Italy	September 5 - September 12	9	Netherlands	Italy	Germany
1973	Haarlem, Netherlands	June 30 - July 8	6	Netherlands	Italy	Spain
1975	Barcelona, Spain	July 25 - August 3	6	Italy	Netherlands	Germany
1977	Haarlem, Netherlands	July 23 - July 31	6	Italy	Netherlands	Belgium
1979	Trieste, Italy	August 11 - August 19	4	Italy	Netherlands	Belgium
1981	Haarlem, Netherlands	July 11 - July 19	4	Netherlands	Italy	Sweden
1983	Florence, Italy	July 28 - August 7	6	Italy	Netherlands	Belgium
1985	Haarlem, Netherlands	July 6 - July 14	6	Netherlands	Italy	Belgium
1987	Barcelona, Spain	July 17 - July 26	7	Netherlands	Italy	Spain
1989	Paris, France	September 6 - September 15	8	Italy	Netherlands	Spain
1991	Rome, Italy	August 2 - August 11	8	Italy	Netherlands	Spain
1993	Stockholm, Sweden	July 9 - July 18	8	Netherlands	Italy	Sweden
1995	Haarlem, Netherlands	July 7 - July 16	10	Netherlands	Italy	Belgium
1997	Paris, France	August 30 - September 6	12	Italy	Netherlands	Spain
1999	Parma and Bologna in Italy	July 23 - July 31	12	Netherlands	Italy	France
2001	Bonn and Cologne in Germany	July 28 - August 5	12	Netherlands	Russia	Italy
2003	Amsterdam, Haarlem, and Rotterdam in the Netherlands	July 23 - July 27	12	Netherlands	Greece	Spain
2005	Blansko, Chocen, Olomouc, and Prague in the Czech Republic	July 7 - July 17	12	Netherlands	Italy	Spain
2007	Spain	September 5 - September 16	12	Netherlands	United Kingdom	Spain
2010	Stuttgart, Heidenheim and Tuebingen in Germany	July 23-August 1	12	Italy	Netherlands	Germany
2012	Haarlem, Rotterdam and Utrecht in Netherlands	September 7-September 16	12	Italy	Netherlands	Spain
2014	Regensburg in Germany and Ostrava, Brno, Blansko and Trebic in the Czech Republic	September 12-September 21	12	Netherlands	Italy	Spain
2016	Hoofddorp in Netherlands	September 9-September 18	12	Netherlands	Spain	Italy
2019	Bonn and Solingen in Germany	September 7-September 15	12	Netherlands	Italy	Spain
2021	Turin in Italy	September 12-September 19	16	Netherlands	Israel	Italy
2023	Prague, Brno, Ostrava, Trebic and Blansko in Czech Republic	September 24-October 1	16	Spain	United Kingdom	Netherlands

Medaling Nations

Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
Belgium	1	2	6	9
Germany	0	1	7	8
France	0	0	1	1
Greece	0	1	0	1
Israel	0	1	0	1
Italy	10	17	5	32
Netherlands	24	9	1	34
Russia	0	1	0	1
Spain	2	2	15	19
Sweden	0	0	2	2
United Kingdom	0	3	0	3

The following countries have never won a Medal but have played in the event (best finish in parentheses):  Czech Republic (5th, 2001, 2005, 2012, 2016, 2019, 2021 and 2023),  Croatia (7th, 2021),  Hungary (16th, 2023),  Ukraine (9th, 1995),  Slovenia (10th, 1995),  San Marino (5th, 1971),  Austria (10th, 2019),  Slovakia (16th, 2021) and  Switzerland (12th, 2023). The Soviet Union's only appearance prior to breakup was 6th in 1991.