The Euro Ice Hockey Challenge is a yearly series of national ice hockey tournaments, organized during the international breaks defined in the IIHF calendar in November, December, and February.
Participants are the ice hockey national teams of countries that are themselves at or around the level of the IIHF World Championship Division I.
Almost all the teams use the EIHC as preparation for the World Championship later in the same year.
It is an opportunity for teams to test less experienced players and for them to gain valuable ice time at an international level.
In 2001 the initial IIHF tournament scheme, planned to last until 2005, included the following 12 participating nations: Ukraine, Austria, Netherlands, Italy, Latvia, Slovenia, Poland, Belarus, Norway, Great Britain, France, Denmark and Hungary.