The Europe/Africa Zone was one of three zones of regional competition in the 1996 Fed Cup.

Group I

• Venue: La Manga Club, Murcia, Spain (outdoor clay)
• Date: 22–24 April

The sixteen teams were divided into four pools of four teams. The top teams of each pool play-off in a two-round knockout stage to decide which nation progresses to World Group II play-offs. Nations finishing in the bottom place in each pool were relegated to Europe/Africa Zone Group II for 1997.

Pools

	Pool A	RUS	BLR	SLO	GBR
1	Russia (2–1)		1–2	3–0	3–0
2	Belarus (2–1)	2–1		0–3	2–1
3	Slovenia (1–2)	0–3	3–0		1–2
4	Great Britain (1–2)	0–3	1–2	2–1

	Pool B	ITA	SWE	LAT	NOR
1	Italy (3–0)		3–0	2–1	3–0
2	Sweden (2–1)	0–3		3–0	3–0
3	Latvia (1–2)	1–2	0–3		3–0
4	Norway (0–3)	0–3	0–3	0–3

	Pool C	SUI	CRO	GEO	YUG
1	Switzerland (3–0)		2–1	3–0	3–0
2	Croatia (2–1)	1–2		3–0	3–0
3	Georgia (1–2)	0–3	0–3		2–1
4	Yugoslavia (0–3)	0–3	0–3	1–2

	Pool D	ROU	HUN	GRE	POR
1	Romania (3–0)		2–1	2–1	3–0
2	Hungary (2–1)	1–2		2–1	3–0
3	Greece (1–2)	1–2	1–2		2–1
4	Portugal (0–3)	0–3	0–3	1–2

Knockout stage

	Semifinals					Finals
	Russia		3
	Sweden		0
						Russia		1
						Switzerland		2
	Hungary		1
	Switzerland		2
	Italy		0
	Belarus		3
						Belarus		1
						Croatia		2
	Croatia		3
	Romania		0

•   Switzerland and  Croatia advanced to World Group II Play-offs.^[1][2]
•  Great Britain,  Norway,  Yugoslavia and  Portugal relegated to Group II in 1997.^[3][4][5][6]

Group II

• Venue: Ramat HaSharon, Israel (outdoor hard)
• Date: 25–30 March

The nineteen teams were divided into three pools of five and one pool of four. The top two teams from each pool then moved on to the play-off stage of the competition. The four teams that won one match from the play-off stage would advance to Group I for 1997.

Pools

	Pool A	POL	LTU	BOT	ETH
1	Poland (3–0)		3–0	3–0	3–0
2	Lithuania (2–1)	0–3		3–0	3–0
3	Botswana (1–2)	0–3	0–3		2–1
4	Ethiopia (0–3)	0–3	0–3	1–2

	Pool B	FIN	TUR	TUN	LIE	CYP
1	Finland (4–0)		3–0	2–1	3–0	3–0
2	Turkey (3–1)	0–3		3–0	3–0	3–0
3	Tunisia (2–2)	1–2	0–3		3–0	3–0
4	Liechtenstein (1–3)	0–3	0–3	0–3		2–1
5	Cyprus (0–4)	0–3	0–3	0–3	1–2

	Pool C	ISR	LUX	EST	ZIM	MKD
1	Israel (4–0)		2–1	3–0	3–0	3–0
2	Luxembourg (3–1)	1–2		2–1	2–1	2–1
3	Estonia (2–2)	0–3	1–2		3–0	2–1
4	Zimbabwe (1–3)	0–3	1–2	0–3		3–0
5	Macedonia (0–4)	0–3	1–2	1–2	0–3

	Pool D	UKR	DEN	IRL	MLT	ISL
1	Ukraine (4–0)		3–0	2–1	3–0	3–0
2	Denmark (3–1)	0–3		2–1	3–0	3–0
3	Ireland (2–2)	1–2	1–2		3–0	3–0
4	Malta (1–3)	0–3	0–3	0–3		3–0
5	Iceland (0–4)	0–3	0–3	0–3	0–3

Play-offs

Winning Team	Score	Losing Team
Poland	2–1	Denmark
Finland	2–1	Luxembourg
Israel	3–0	Lithuania
Ukraine	3–0	Turkey

•  Poland,  Finland,  Israel and  Ukraine promoted to Europe/Africa Group I in 1997.^{[7][8][9][10]}