On June 15, 1954, the European Football Association Union was established. In 1955, the UEFA Champions League Club Cup began to be held. In 1956, preparations began for competitions to be held with the participation of various UEFA member associations. Two years later, the first qualifying round of the European Championship (UEFA) began. The original purpose of this competition was to fill the four-year gap between the two FIFA World Cups, thereby providing more opportunities for European countries to compete.

The European Football Championship is divided into two stages: preliminary rounds and final rounds. Except for the organizers of the current tournament who can automatically enter the final round, other UEFA member associations must participate in the preliminary rounds and obtain qualification in the preliminary rounds to enter the final round. At the beginning of its establishment, the UEFA European Championship had only four teams in the final round, but in 1980 it was increased to eight teams. The final round competition, originally only consisting of knockout rounds, was later added to the group stage.
In the final round of the 1996 European Championship, the participating teams were expanded to 16 teams, divided into 4 groups with 4 teams in each group. Each group played a single round robin points tournament, with the first and second place teams in each group advancing to the knockout stage. The knockout stage (including the final) adopted a single loss knockout format. There is no division of third or fourth place in the European Championship, and the losing team in the semi-finals does not need to compete for the third place. The defending champion will not automatically secure a spot in the final stage of the next European Championship.
On September 26, 2008, UEFA announced that starting from 2016, the number of teams participating in the final stage of the European Football Championship would increase to 24.
On March 12, 2020, according to the news on the official website of UEFA, in view of the continuous spread of the COVID-19 in Europe and the updated assessment of the epidemic by the World Health Organization, UEFA decided to invite representatives of 55 member associations, European club associations and various leagues to hold a video conference on March 17 to discuss the next steps to deal with the epidemic in European football matches.
On March 17, 2020, UEFA officially announced the postponement of the 2020 UEFA Champions League to the summer of 2021.
In 2020, on March 18, Zurich local time, the Council of FIFA held a teleconference to discuss the severe situation caused by the novel coronavirus and passed a series of resolutions. FIFA has decided to reschedule the European Championship from June 11, 2021 to July 11, 2021 in the international football competition calendar.
On June 17, 2020, UEFA announced that the 2020 European Championship would take place between June 11 and July 11, 2021, with the competition venue still located in the originally planned 12 cities. According to the new schedule announced by UEFA, the group stage matches will be held from June 11th to 23rd, 2021. The round of 16 will be held from June 26th to 29th, the quarter finals will be held from July 2nd to 3rd, the semi-finals will be held from July 6th to 7th, and the final will be held on July 11th.
On April 23, 2021, UEFA announced that Dublin and Bilbao were both disqualified from hosting due to the inability to promise audience attendance, and Sevilla took over four matches.
On March 23, 2022, the official website of UEFA announced that Russia had applied to host the European Championship.
On October 10, 2023 local time, the UEFA Executive Committee was held in Switzerland, officially announcing that the UK and Ireland will become the host countries for the 2028 European Championship; The Euro 2032 will be held in Italy and Türkiye.