22nd January – 6th February 2011 - Organiser: IHF / SWE

• The defending World Champion France qualified directly for the final tournament.
  
  

• Sweden qualified directly as the organiser.
  
  

• The three best teams at Euro 2010 in Austria will secure their place at the World Championship.

• The remaining nine places allocated to Europe will be decided upon the results of the Qualification Tournament that will take place from 11 – 17 January 2010 for those national teams not participating in the Euro 2010 and the World Championship Play-Off matches commencing on the weekend of 12/13 June and coming to a conclusion on the weekend 19/20 June 2010

17th – 29th January 2012 - Organiser: EHF / SRB

As decided at the 2008 EHF Congress in Vienna, Austria; the Serbian Handball Federation was successful in their bid to organise and host the Final Tournament of the 10th edition of the Men’s European Handball Championship. Taking place across five venues beginning with the preliminary round, the competition will come to an end in the city of Belgrade in the Beogradska Arena. The qualification for the sixteen teams participating in this tournament is as follows:

• Serbia directly qualifies as organiser.
  
  
• The winner of Euro 2010 in Austria will directly qualify for the final tournament.
  
  
• The remaining 14 places will decided via the EURO 2012 Qualification Tournament that will begin in autumn 2010. The first and second ranked team from each of the seven groups will participate in the final tournament. This is in accordance with the new system for the European Championship qualification that was ratified at the 2006 EHF Congress in Portugal.