Comment by native_samples
4 years ago
You're being confused by a nasty habit many loyalists to the EU institutions have, of conflating the EU (a political system) with Europe and Europeans (a continent and people).
A good rule of thumb is that if a British person says Europe or European they mean "the continent" and are including Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, Lichtenstein, Vatican City etc, but excluding the UK itself.
If a German/French/Spanish/Italian person says Europe or European, especially if they've been to university, they a very likely to mean the EU and only the EU. These people usually don't consider Switzerland or Britain to the "European" as a consequence.
People outside of Europe always mean the continent and population, including the UK, when they use these terms.
> If a German/French/Spanish/Italian person says Europe or European, especially if they've been to university, they a very likely to mean the EU and only the EU. These people usually don't consider Switzerland or Britain to the "European" as a consequence.
German, been to university. Same for my whole social system. That's absolutely BS what you're saying. Especially German speaking countries have a stronger bond than EU/Europe because of "DACH" and a shared culture (see the anthroposophy discussion recently).
This thread is literally an example of it: the title claims to be "European alternatives" but the author really means the EU. No British firms are listed.