2016 in Europe

1 January
* The Netherlands takes over the rotating presidency of the EU Council from Luxembourg.
* San Sebastián and Wrocław are named European Capitals of Culture.
8 January – 32 people, including 22 asylum seekers, are arrested in connection to a series of apparently co-ordinated sexual assaults and thefts in the German city of Cologne on New Year's Eve.
9 January
* Tens of thousands of people take to the streets in cities around Poland to protest against a new law giving the government control of state media.
* 14 people are injured and the government building is set alight as opposition protests in Kosovo's capital Pristina turn violent.
12 January – A suspected suicide bombing kills at least 11 people and injures 14 in Istanbul's Sultanahmet Square.
24 January – Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa is elected President of Portugal.
28 January – A boat carrying Iraqi Kurdish migrants sinks off the Greek island of Samos, killing at least 24 people, including several children, with 11 others missing.
30 January – A massive pile-up involving 70 vehicles, including a bus and several lorries, kills four people and injures 30 on A1 motorway in western Slovenia.
February
Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan threatens to send the millions of refugees in Turkey to EU member states, saying: "We can open the doors to Greece and Bulgaria anytime and we can put the refugees on buses... So how will you deal with refugees if you don't get a deal? Kill the refugees?"
9 February – Two passenger trains collide in the German town of Bad Aibling, with 11 people killed and 82 injured.
12 February – Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill sign an Ecumenical Declaration in the first such meeting since the East–West Schism in 1054.
15 February – Bosnia and Herzegovina formally applies to join the European Union.
28 February – A total of 36 people are presumed dead following three explosions at a coal mine in Vorkuta, Russia.
March
5 March – The party of Slovak prime minister Robert Fico wins the election but loses the parliamentary majority.
13 March – At least 34 people are killed and 125 wounded in a suicide car bombing in the Turkish capital of Ankara.
18 March – Paris attacks suspect Salah Abdeslam is shot and arrested in a police raid in the Molenbeek area of Brussels after a four-month international manhunt.
19 March – Flydubai Flight 981 crashes while attempting to land at Rostov-on-Don Airport, Russia, killing all 62 people on board.
20 March – At least 14 people are killed after a coach carrying Erasmus exchange students crashes near Barcelona.
22 March – 32 people are killed and 316 injured in attacks at Brussels Airport and Maalbeek metro station.
24 March – Ex-Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadžić is sentenced to 40 years in prison after being found guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity committed during the Bosnian War.
April
3 April – A ceasefire is announced after at least 193 soldiers are killed in clashes between Azerbaijani and Armenian forces over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region.
4 April – Thousands of people protest in Reykjavík, asking for the resignation of Prime Minister Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson, after Panama Papers investigation revealed that he had hidden investments in tax havens.
18 April – More than 400 migrants and refugees drown in the Mediterranean Sea while trying to cross by boat from Egypt to Italy.
21 April – The Bulgarian parliament approves the introduction of compulsory voting.
29 April – A helicopter ferrying passengers from a Norwegian oil platform crashes in the North Sea, killing all 13 people on board.
May
11 May – Italy becomes the last Western European country to legalize same-sex civil unions.
14 May – Jamala, representing Ukraine with the song "1944", wins the Eurovision Song Contest 2016 in Stockholm, Sweden.
19 May – EgyptAir Flight 804 crashes off the Greek island of Karpathos, killing all 66 people on board.
22 May
* A gunman fires shots into a small crowd attending an open air concert in Nenzing, Austria, killing two people and wounding 11 others before shooting himself to death.
* Independent Green Alexander Van der Bellen is narrowly elected President of Austria.
29 May – 17 people die in a fire at a building housing elderly people in a village near Ukraine's capital Kyiv.
June
1 June – Gotthard Base Tunnel, the world's longest and deepest traffic tunnel, opens in Switzerland. It is the first flat route through the Alps.
3 June – Heavy rains cause severe flooding in parts of France as well as Belgium and Germany, with reports of at least 11 people dead.
6 June
* Three people are killed and 36 injured in a train crash in eastern Belgium.
* A bus carrying school children, teachers and parents plunges into an irrigation canal in southern Turkey, killing 14 people.
7 June – A car bomb attack targeting a police bus kills 11 people and injures 36 in central Istanbul.
14 June
* UEFA fines the Russian Football Union €150,000 and imposes a suspended disqualification on their team for violence at UEFA Euro 2016.
* At least 40 people are injured in violence during street protests in Paris against French labor reform.
19 June - Baku hosts the European Grand Prix which is won by Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg
23 June – The United Kingdom votes to leave the European Union.
25 June – Guðni Jóhannesson wins Iceland's presidential election.
26 June – Conservative People's Party, led by Mariano Rajoy, gains the most seats in the Spanish repeat election but remains short of a majority.
28 June – An armed attack at Istanbul Atatürk Airport leaves at least 41 people dead and 239 others injured.
July
1 July – Latvia becomes the 35th member of the OECD.
2 July – A gunman shoots five people dead and wounds 22 more after opening fire in a café in Žitište, Serbia.
8–9 July – Leaders of NATO member states meet at the two-day summit in the Polish capital of Warsaw.
12 July – 27 people are killed and dozens more injured in a head-on collision involving two passenger trains in the Apulia region of Italy.
13 July – Theresa May replaces David Cameron as leader of the Conservative Party and becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
14 July – At least 86 people are killed after a truck is deliberately driven into a Bastille Day crowd in Nice, France.
15–16 July – At least 265 people are killed and more than 3,000 members of Turkey's armed forces arrested after an attempted military coup.
21 July – Rioting erupts in the Armenian capital of Yerevan as protesters clash with police over the government's handling of a four-day hostage crisis.
22 July – A gunman opens fire near a shopping mall in Munich, Germany, killing 9 people and injuring 27.
August
6 August – An accidental explosion and fire kill at least 13 people in a bar in the French city of Rouen.
7 August – At least 21 people are dead and six are missing after torrential rains and flooding affect Macedonia's capital of Skopje.
10 August
* Three people are killed and hundreds left critically injured as major wildfires sweep across the Portuguese island of Madeira.
* A wave of Kurdish rebel attacks targeting police and soldiers in southeast Turkey kill at least 12 people.
20 August – At least 51 people are killed and scores more wounded in a suicide attack at a wedding ceremony in Turkey's southeastern province of Gaziantep.
24 August – A magnitude 6.2 earthquake hits central Italy, killing at least 290 people.
26 August
* Yavuz Sultan Selim Bridge, the world's tallest suspension bridge, opens to traffic across the Bosphorus.
* Kurdish militants attack a police checkpoint in southeast Turkey with an explosives-laden truck, killing at least 11 police officers and wounding 78 other people.
27 August – At least 17 migrant workers die after a fire breaks out at a Moscow warehouse.
September
18 September – Russia's parliamentary elections bring a landslide win for President Vladimir Putin's United Russia and its allies.
October
2 October – 2016 Hungarian migrant quota referendum: 3,362,224 or 98.36% of valid votes reject EU's mandatory migrant quotas.
9 October – A car bomb attack outside the Durak gendarmerie station in southeastern Turkey leaves 10 soldiers and eight civilians dead and scores of others injured.
10 October – Kersti Kaljulaid becomes the first female President of Estonia.
26 October – Powerful earthquakes rock central Italy, causing buildings to crumble, knocking power out and sending panicked residents fleeing into the streets.

2016 in Europe

Incumbents

Albania

Andorra

Azerbaijan

Belarus

Bulgaria

Croatia

Czech Republic

Cyprus

Denmark

Estonia

Finland

Georgia

Greece

Hungary

Iceland

Ireland

Liechtenstein

Lithuania

Malta

Moldova

Monaco

Montenegro

North Macedonia

Norway

Romania

San Marino

Slovakia

Spain

Vatican City

Events

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October