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The European Handball Federation EHF has a new President, only the third since its foundation in 1991: As Tor Lian (Norway) didn’t go for another candidature at the Congress in Monaco, his former Vice President Jean Brihault (France) was the only candidate. The 11th EHF Congress in Monaco voted with a clear majority in favour of the 65 years old Frenchman - 48 out of 49 nations voted for him. He will be in office until 2016. After gaining 97,96 percent of support Brihault said: "I thank you very much for your confidence and I hope I deserve it. This will be judged later on.” Furthermore the former handball and rugby player Brihault added: “Handball has reached a level in Europe, which we couldn’t have dreamt of 20 years ago. This is wonderful, but we shouldn’t be complacent. There are still major issues to tackle.”

At the beginning of the Congress IHF President Dr. Hassan Moustafa stated a very emotional and personal speech to the 50 member Federations and especially to the outgoing President Tor Lian: “The EHF is an integral part of the IHF and we know that we can always count on Europe,” Moustafa said – and thanked Tor Lian for his eight years presidency. At the end of the Congress, Tor Lian was awarded Honorary President of the EHF and received a golf set as a gift.

After some members could not re-candidate due to age limits and EHF regulations, the EHF Executive Committee has a complete new outlook: New Vice President and successor of Jean Brihault is Arne Elovsson (SWE), new and old treasurer is Ralf Dejaco (ITA).  All EHF Technical Commissions have newly elected Presidents – and all are members of the EHF Executive: Chairman of the Competitions Commission and successor of long-term Chairman Jan Tuik (NED) is Leopold Kalin (SLO), the brother of IHF COC Chairman Leon Kalin. New Chairman of the Methods Commission is Jerzy Elias (POL) following outgoing chairman František Táborský, who is also leaving because of the age limit. Ole R. Jørstad (NOR) is new Chairman of the Beach Handball Commission, who outvoted his predecessor László Sinka (HUN). The other three members of the Executive Committee are newly elected, too: Helga Magnusdottir (ISL), Per Bertelsen (DEN) and Predrag Bosković (MNE).  The EHF Congress also nominated new President Jean Brihault as new Vice President for Europe of the IHF.

Jan Tuik, František Táborský and László Sinka were awarded Honorary Members of the EHF. Jesus Guerrero (ESP), Moshe Herman (ISR), Helmut Schebeczek (AUT) and Allan Lund (DEN, Chairman of the IHF handball@school project) received the EHF special awards.

One major subject of the EHF Congress was promoting women and women’s handball: 20 months after the EHF Congress in Copenhagen had voted for the Professional Handball Board in men’s handball, the women’s equivalent was installed in Monaco. With a large majority (47 votes for, 2 votes against, 1 abstention) the EHF member federations cleared the way for this new platform, by changing the statutes. The Chairman of the Women’s Handball Board will have a seat on the EHF executive, and will be nominated by the new members of the Board.

The promotion of women's handball is one of the major tasks Jean Brihault has set himself: “The gap between women’s and men’s handball has grown in recent years partly because of the rapid development of men’s handball. The development of women’s handball is a key issue we need to work on in the future." The first members of the Women’s Nations Board were elected in Monaco: Tina Fensdal (DEN), Lidija Bojic Cacic (Croatia) and Pirje Orasson (EST).

Aside the Congress voted with more than a two third majority for a change of the EHF statutes concerning women in EHF bodies.  This motion stated by the EHF includes not only gender equality in the EHF statutes, but secures that both genders are represented in all EHF bodies (Executive and EHF Technical Commissions). In addition to the IHF Regulations, the EHF voted for a new own Anti-Doping Unit. The EHF will state a motion at the next IHF Congress 2013 in Doha, Qatar, concerning the IHF transfer fees regulations, which had changed in 2011, too – supported by IHF President Dr. Hassan Moustafa.

An important part of the large agenda of the two days Congress was the draw of the preliminary round groups for the Women’s 2012 European Championship 2012 in Serbia – played in the same venues as the upcoming 2013 IHF Women’s World Championship.

These are the groups for the preliminary round:

• Group A in Belgrade: Norway, Ukraine, Serbia, Czech Republic
• Group B in Nis: Sweden, France, Denmark, FYR Macedonia
• Group C in Novi Sad: Croatia, Germany, Hungary, Spain
• Group D in Vrsac: Romania, Montenegro, Russia, Iceland

The three best ranked teams of all groups will proceed to the main round. The top teams of the Groups A and B will face in Belgrade, the three top teams of Groups C and D will play in Novi Sad. The Final weekend will be played in the Belgrade Arena like the main round before, whilst the preliminary round in Belgrade will be staged in the Pionir Arena.

Another major task was the awarding of various European Championships in the upcoming years.

The list of awards for the upcoming EHF events, which were decided at the Congress in Monaco:

• Men’s European Championship 2016: Poland (venues Gdansk, Katowice, Lodz, Krakow and Wroclaw)
• Women’s European Championship 2016: Sweden (Stockholm, Kristianstad, Gothenburg, Helsingborg and Malmo)
• Men’s U18 European Championship 2014: Poland (venues: Gdansk and Gdynia)
• Men’s U20 European Championship 2014: Austria (venues: Linz and Traun)
• Women’s U17 European Championship 2015: FYR Macedonia (venues: Ohrid, Skopje)

Great Britain was admitted as new EHF member as successor of both the English and Scottish Handball Federations due to the official IHF and IOC lists.

Norway (for 2010) and Denmark (for 2011) were awarded with the “EHF best nations award”.

In his conclusion, IHF President Dr. Hassan Moustafa congratulated Jean Brihault and his team for their election and praised the Congress as a perfect event in an absolute harmonic and democratic atmosphere. “If the EHF is healthy, the IHF is healthy, too”, was the message Moustafa had for the participants in his closing words.