The first W.A.K.O. Amateur European Championships were organized by George Bruckner and held in Vienna in 1977 and between 1977 and 1982 the organization held a European Championships each year. W.A.K.O. began to change the timing of the championships after 1982, making sure that they were every two years, thus (generally) falling between world championships. In 1994 W.A.K.O. first started introduce two European championships to be held in the same year.