However, they later won the 2015 World Women's Handball Championship, vacating the European champion Olympic berth which fell to Spain as the runner-up.

The two next-best placed teams, Sweden and Montenegro, earned spots in the Olympic Qualification Tournaments.

However, both candidates withdrew their offers later, thus the host nation could not be selected on the 10th Ordinary EHF Congress between 24 and 25 September 2010 as it was planned.

As a result, six federations (Croatia, Hungary, Iceland, Slovakia, Sweden and Turkey) showed intention to host the championship.

Until the final deadline of 28 January 2011, EHF received three bids from four federations:[6] After a thorough analysis, Slovakia was excluded from the race first, as they failed to ensure a minimum of four arenas that meet the strict criteria for the European Championship.