The 1997 Women's European Volleyball Championship was the 20th edition of the event, organised by Europe's governing volleyball body, the Confédération Européenne de Volleyball.

It was hosted in Brno and Zlín, Czech Republic from 27 September to 5 October 1997.

In the first stage, the twelve participants were divided in two groups of six teams each.

The second stage of the tournament consisted of two sets of semifinals to determine the tournament final ranking.

The group stage firsts and seconds played the semifinals for 1st to 4th place, group stage thirds and fourths played the 5th to 8th place semifinals and the remaining four teams which finished group stages as fifth and sixth ended all tied in final ranking at 9th place.