The 49th European Bridge Teams Championships will be held in Pau, France, from 14 to 28 June 2008. It comprises three series - for Open, Women and Senior national teams. Until now, the Open and Women series had always been held as a single round robin. A new format is to be introduced in the Open series this year: teams will be split in two groups to play a first round robin; the top teams from both groups will join in a second round robin from which the new European Champions will emerge.

Originally held in Scheveningen, The Netherlands, in 1932, the European Bridge Team Championships became the principal competition organized by the European Bridge League for teams representing the member countries. It started as a single series competition for open teams, but in 1935, a women teams series was added. The senior series became part of the competition much later, in 1995. Nowadays, the European Team Championships are held every even-numbered year.

The first European champions, back in 1932, were Austria, who also won the first women event in 1935. The first senior champions, Poland, were declared 30 years later. All in all, Italy has won most gold medals in the open series (19 against France's 8 and England's 7), while England prevails in the women (with 13 gold medals, against France's 11 and Denmark's 6), and France in the seniors (with 3 gold medals, against Poland's 2 and Denmark's 1).

• For a complete list of the previous events, their venues and winners, click here.
• To see the reigning champions, click here to go to the 48th European Team Championships site.