Rowing, the 2026 European Championships have been awarded to Varese. Tizzano: "A guarantee of reliability." Fontana: "An important recognition."

Varese, August 20, 2025 – The 2026 European Rowing Championships will be held in Italy. From July 30 to August 2, the city of Varese will host the continental event, with an estimated attendance of over 500 athletes from more than 30 nations in the Senior, Lightweight, and Pararowing categories.

World Rowing's choice fell on the Schiranna race course, already host to the European Championships in 2012 and 2021 and other international events such as the 2013 Masters World Championships, the 2014 and 2022 Under 23 World Championships (along with the European Championships and the Under 19 World Championships), and the 2015, 2016, 2023, 2024, and 2025 World Cup stages.

The 2026 European Championships will precede, by one year, the World Masters Championships, assigned to Varese in December 2024 for the year 2027. The 2026 European Championships will be characterized by the participation of many of the athletes who will be protagonists during the same month at the World Championships in Amsterdam, scheduled for 23 to 30 August.

The summer of 2026 will see Italian rowing active as a host country, from north to south, also thanks to the Mediterranean Games, with the rowing competitions hosted within a new race course in Taranto from 29 August to 1 September.

" The awarding of the 2026 European Championships to Varese , just weeks after the success of the World Cup and the Youth Festival, is a great source of pride for the entire Italian rowing community," commented Davide Tizzano, president of the Italian Rowing Federation . "Varese is a guarantee of reliability for international rowing, and over the past year, our federal council, as an increasingly active member of the organizing committee, has worked in synergy with local institutions to ensure the conditions were right for this important bid. The €950,000 funding allocated by the Italian government to the FIC has allowed us to celebrate World Rowing's awarding of this important international event."

Lombardy Governor Attilio Fontana expressed his satisfaction: "The committee's choice fell on the Schiranna race course. This is excellent news , coming just as the 2025 Canoe and Paracanoe World Championships have begun at Milan's Idroscalo." "This is an important recognition for our country and for Lombardy," the governor commented, "confirming its reliability in organizing world-class sporting events. Congratulations to the Italian Rowing Federation and all the institutions that worked together to achieve this goal."