A total of 26 European nations have registered to compete in the tournament, and these will be drawn into five groups of four teams and two groups of three teams for the qualification stage, with host nations Hungary and Croatia already guaranteed a spot.

Teams will play a home and away game against each team in their respective group, with the top two teams qualifying for Euro 2014, which takes place in December next year.

The competing nations have been seeded according to their ranking, and Europe's top-ranked women's team Denmark will be top seeds, alongside holders Montenegro, Norway France, Sweden, Russia and Spain.

Montenegro are the current holders of the women's European Championships after they defeated Norway in last year's final

The first two rounds of the qualification for the Women's EHF Euro 2014 will be played from October 23 until 27 this year, with the next rounds taking place between March 26 to March 30 2014 and the final rounds from June 11 to June 15 2014.

The Women's EHF Euro 2014 is due to take place in Hungary and Croatia December 7 to 21 next year.

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]