The EU07 was developed from the EU06 that had been delivered in 1962 by English Electric. A the “U” in the designation suggests, it was a locomotive for universal use with freight and passenger trains and this had a top speed of 125 km/h. Compared to the EU06, it had the same type of traction motors and the same power of 2,080 kW.

Between 1965 and 1974, Pafawag built 240 which they internally called type 4E. Nine years after the end of production, Cegielski started a new production run. By 1994, a total of 242 had been built which were called type 303E by the manufacturer. Starting in 1995, 97 EU07 were rebuilt to EP07 express locomotives by altering the gear ratio for a top speed of 140 km/h.

As early as in 1972, the EP08 was another locomotive designed for 140 km/h that was based on the EU07. Also the two-section ET41 freight locomotive was based on the EU07 and had exactly twice the power. The EU07 was used for passenger trains up to 700 tonnes and freight trains up to 2,000 tonnes. From 2009, some came to PKP Intercity and some came to PKP Cargo. PKP also started to modernize some in 2011.