Originally known as the Bruno Zauli Cup, it first took place in 1965 in Stuttgart (men) and Kassel (women), West Germany.

Smaller nations, like Luxembourg and Switzerland, would compete in preliminary rounds, before larger countries, such as the United Kingdom and France, would join in the semi-finals.

This formula was fairly successful; however, by 1983 the number of competitions that athletes were expected to compete in made it extremely difficult for countries to send their best team to each event.

The four winning teams from the 'Super League' (two male and two female) went on to compete as individual countries in the IAAF World Cup in Athletics.

The new leagues are:[1] Below is a list of the events that took place at the championships, and what is the European Cup record, who set it, what country they represented and which year.

100 m: 10.04 – Linford Christie, Great Britain 1996, 1997 200 m: 20.11 – Linford Christie, Great Britain, 1995 400 m: 44.75 – David Grindley, Great Britain, 1993 800 m: 1:44.28 – Wilson Kipketer, Denmark, 2002 1,500 m: 3:33.63 – José Manuel Abascal, Spain, 1983 3,000 m: 7:41.08 – Dieter Baumann, Germany, 1997 5,000 m: 13:21.68 – Salvatore Antibo, Italy, 1991 10,000 m: 27:32.85 – Fernando Mamede, Portugal, 1983 3,000 m Steeplechase: 8:13.32 – Mariano Scartezzini, Italy, 1981 110 m Hurdles: 13.10 – Colin Jackson, Great Britain, 1993 400 m Hurdles: 47.85 – Harald Schmid, West Germany, 1979, 1985 4 × 100 m Relay: 38.16 – Great Britain (Jason Gardener, Darren Campbell, Marlon Devonish, Julian Golding), 1999 4 × 400 m Relay: 2:59.46 – Great Britain (Roger Black, Jamie Baulch, Ewan Thomas, Mark Richardson), 1997 High Jump: 2.40 m – Patrik Sjöberg, Sweden, 1989 Pole Vault: 6.00 m – Radion Gataullin, Russia, 1993 =Long Jump: 8.38 – Robert Emmiyan, Soviet Union, 1987=Long Jump: 8.38 – Kirill Sosunov, Russia, 1998 Triple Jump: 17.77 – Khristo Markov, Bulgaria, 1985 Shot put: 22.05 – Sergey Smirnov, Soviet Union, 1985 Hammer: 82.90 – Jüri Tamm, Soviet Union, 1985 Discus: 68.76 – Lars Riedel, Germany, 1995 Javelin: 92.41 – Aki Parviainen, Finland, 2001 100 m: 10.77 – Ivet Lalova, Bulgaria 2004 200 m: 21.99 – Silke Gladisch, East Germany, 1987 =400 m: 48.60 – Marita Koch, East Germany, 1979=400 m: 48.60 – Olga Vladykina, Soviet Union, 1985 800 m: 1:55.91 – Jarmila Kratachvilova, Czechoslovakia, 1985 1,500 m: 3:58.40 – Ravilya Agletdinova, Soviet Union, 1985 3,000 m: 8:35.32 – Zola Budd, Great Britain, 1985 5,000 m: 14:29.11 – Paula Radcliffe, Great Britain, 2004 10,000 m: 31:03.62 – Kathrin Ullrich, Germany, 1991 3,000 m Steeplechase: 9:35.95 – Cristina Casandra, Romania, 2005 110 m Hurdles: 12.47 – Cornelia Oschkenat, East Germany, 1987 400 m Hurdles: 53.38 – Yuliya Pechonkina, Russia, 2002 4 × 100 m Relay: 41.65 – East Germany (Silke Gladisch, Marita Koch, Ingrid Auerswald-Lange, Marlies Göhr), 1985 4 × 400 m Relay: 3:18.58 – Soviet Union (Olga Nazarova, Nadiya Olizarenko, Mariya Pinigina, Olga Vladykina), 1985 High Jump: 2.06m – Stefka Kostadinova, Bulgaria, 1985 Pole Vault: 4.75m – Monika Pyrek, Poland, 2006 Long Jump: 7.42 – Tatyana Kotova, Russia, 2002 Triple Jump: 14.98 – Tatyana Lebedeva, Russia, 2000 Shot put: 21.56 – Natalya Lisovskaya, Soviet Union, 1987 Hammer: 76.50 – Tatyana Lysenko, Russia, 2006 Discus: 73.90 – Diana Gansky, East Germany, 1987 Javelin: 70.20 – Christina Obergföll, Germany, 2007 European Cup Finals :[2]