The main purpose of this study is to explore successful river restoration cases in Europe; and then, to find their practice and policy implications for the establishment of a Korean river restoration model. Many of European countries are working on river restoration projects with different scales. One appealing restoration approach in European cases is “river widening” that proved to be effective in flood protection, user-friendly waterfront creation, and also river ecosystem recovery. River widening through the embankment reduction increase the volume of the flow section and reduce the speed of the flow. The river widening also help overcome the ecological gap between river and its adjacent area and increase people's accessibility to the river. Finally, successful European cases address that long term vision, varying restoration strategies in consideration of different local circumstances, and strong partnership and participation are necessary for the successful outcomes. By introducing European river restoration cases in detail, hopefully, this project is expected to lay a foundation for overcoming the problems of past river restoration or retrofit projects in Korea, which problems are mainly due to a standardized approach without consideration of local circumstances and river ecosystem. When further scientific, empirical studies that test various river restoration measures including this study's river widening follows, this study is expected to help develop a Korean river restoration model. And, the model will contribute to making Korean rivers safer, more ecologically sound, and also more aesthetically unique.