This article describes the qualification for the 2016 European Women's Handball Championship.
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Qualification system
The draw was held in Vienna, Austria on 24 March 2015 at 11:30 local time. Sweden as host nation was directly qualified. 32 teams had registered for participation and compete for 14 places at the final tournament in 2 distinct Qualification Phases. The group winners of phase 1 advanced to phase 2. The 28 teams were divided into seven groups of four teams. The top two teams qualified for the main tournament as well as the best-ranked third placed team, where the results against the last-placed team were revoked.
Qualification Phase 1
The groups played in a tournament format from 12–14 June 2015. The group winners advanced to the second phase.
Qualification Phase 2
The draw was held on 9 April 2015 in Kristianstad, Sweden.
Ranking of third-placed teams
To determine the best third-placed teams from the qualifying group stage which qualified directly for the final tournament, only the results against the first, and second-placed teams in their group were taken into account, while results against the fourth-placed team were not included. As a result, four matches played by each third-placed team counted for the purposes of determining the ranking.