The 2003 Women's European Volleyball Championship was the 23rd edition of the event, organised by Europe's governing volleyball body, the Confédération Européenne de Volleyball. It was hosted in Ankara, Turkey from 20 to 28 September 2003. The two finalists Poland and Turkey claimed a ticket for the 2003 FIVB Women's World Cup and the first Olympic Qualification Tournament for the 2004 Summer Olympics held in Japan in November. The first six ranked teams (Poland, Turkey, Netherlands, Germany, Italy, and Russia) qualified for the European Olympic Qualification Tournament in Baku, from 5 to 10 January 2004. Semifinalists Turkey, Germany, Poland and the Netherlands also automatically qualified for the 2005 Women's European Championships, which took place in Croatia. Defending champion Russia finished out of the medals for the first time in volleyball history.

Participating teams

Format

The tournament was played in two different stages. In the first stage, the twelve participants were divided in two groups of six teams each. A single round-robin format was played within each group to determine the teams' group position. The second stage of the tournament consisted of two sets of semifinals to determine the tournament final ranking. The group stage firsts and seconds played the semifinals for 1st to 4th place, group stage thirds and fourths played the 5th to 8th place semifinals and the remaining four teams which finished group stages as fifth and sixth ended all tied in final ranking at 9th place. The pairing of the semifinals was made so teams played against the opposite group teams which finished in a different position (1st played against 2nd, 3rd played against 4th).

Pools composition

Squads

Venues

Preliminary round

Pool A

Pool B

Final round

5th–8th place

5th–8th semifinals

7th place match

5th place match

Final

Semifinals

3rd place match

Final

Final ranking

Individual awards

Players awarded for their performances in the tournament.