The 2016 European Athletics Youth Championships was the first edition of the biennial, continental athletics competition for European athletes aged fifteen to seventeen. It was held in Tbilisi, Georgia from 14–17 July and was established following the 2013 Congress of the EAA in Skopje.^[1] The event programme mirrored that of the previous IAAF World Youth Championships in Athletics, with the exception of a boy's decathlon, rather than the octathlon. Around 900 athletes from 46 European Athletics Member Federations took part.

This was the only edition of the championships to be described as "Youth Championships". World and European Athletics hereafter changed their nomenclature from "Youth" and "Junior" to "Under-18" and "Under-20" respectively.