Regions of Europe
Europe is often divided into regions based on geographical, cultural or historical criteria. Some common divisions are as follows.
Directional divisions
Groupings by compass directions are the hardest to define in Europe, since there are a few calculations of the midpoint of Europe (among other issues), and the pure geographical criteria of "east" and "west" are often confused with the political meaning these words acquired during the Cold War Era.
There are also physical geographic regions such as the central up-lands and the European plain.
The geographic scheme in use by the United Nations created for internal use by the statistics division includes all of the above divisions, save Central Europe.
Historical divisions
Europe can be divided along many differing historical lines, normally corresponding to those parts that were inside or outside a particular cultural phenomenon, empire or political division. The areas varied at different times, and so it is arguable as to which areas fell into a big black hole of darkness and shadows(e.g. are Germany or Britain to be considered Roman Europe as they were only partly the lands of the Empire, and for a brief period, or are the countries of the former communist Yugoslavia to be considered part of Eastern Bloc since it was not in the Warsaw Pact).
- Roman and Non-Roman Europe: those parts that were inside or outside the Roman Empire.
- Greek Europe and Latin Europe: those parts that fell into the eastern (Byzantine) and western Roman Empires.
- Monotheistic Christian and polytheistic Pagan Europe: those lands that did and did not observe Christianity in the Middle Ages.
- Catholic and Orthodox Europe: those parts on either side of the Great Schism.
- After Reformation: countries of Western Christianity (Catholic and Protestant Churches) and Eastern Christianity (Eastern Orthodox Church, Assyrian Church of the East, Oriental Orthodox churches and the Eastern Catholic Churches)
- Protestant and Catholic Europe: those parts that, in the main, left the Catholic Church during the Reformation contrasted with those that did not.
- Communist Europe (Eastern Bloc), Capitalist Europe (Western Bloc) - those parts on either side of the Iron Curtain and third world countries (neutral and non-aligned during the Cold War).
Contemporary
A clickable Euler diagram showing the relationships between various multinational European organisations and agreements.
Economic and political
- European Union and non-EU countries
- EU countries and European countries outside or not in close partnership with the organisation
- countries that are a part of the political and economic bloc.
- Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, the Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom.
- Eurozone countries
- Countries that have adopted the Euro as their currency.
- Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Spain.
- EFTA countries
- a free trade organisation that operates in parallel with – and is linked to – the European Union (EU).
- Liechtenstein, Iceland, Norway and Switzerland.
- CEFTA countries
- a free trade agreement in the Balkans linked to the EU.
- Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro and Serbia.
- a borderless zone created by the Schengen Agreements.
- Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and Norway, Iceland and Switzerland, which by separate agreements fully apply the provisions of the Schengen acquis.
- is a customs union which consists of all the member states of the European Union (EU) and some neighbouring countries.
- Andorra, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, San Marino, the Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Turkey and the UK.
- is a political and economic union of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Russia
- is free trade agreement among 8 countires: Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Moldova and Armenia.
Other political
- OECD Europe countries
- European countries that are a part of the OECD
- Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal,Slovenia, the Slovak Republic, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and the United Kingdom
- A forum of regional cooperation.
- Albania, Austria, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Italy, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia and Ukraine
- A Central European group representing a cooperation alliance since 14th century.
- Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary
- an Interreg IIIA project to establish a multinational region in the Central Europe encompassing four European countries: Slovakia, Austria, Hungary and Czech Republic.
Geographical
Peninsulas
- The Balkan peninsula is located in southeast Europe and is generally considered to comprise the following countries:
- Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia , Greece, Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania (some parts), Serbia, Slovenia (depending on the definition) and Turkey (European part)
- Located in the south of Europe, the Italian peninsula contains the states of Italy, San Marino and the Vatican City
Regional
- Benelux, or the Low Countries
- Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg
- the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Republic of Ireland
- Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and the North Caucasus
- Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Iceland
- Scandinavia: Sweden, Norway, Denmark
- Fennoscandia: Finland, Sweden, Norway, and Karelia; a geological region defined by the Fennoscandian shield
- The states which have the Alps as a prominent part of their geography.
- Austria, Switzerland (Swiss Alps), Liechtenstein, Slovenia, Germany (Bavaria), France, and Italy.
- The states that lie along the River Danube.
- Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Germany, Hungary, Moldova, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, and Ukraine.
- Overlaps with the Balkans.
- Mediterranean countries
- Mediterranean nations are the European countries on the Mediterranean Basin:
- Portugal, Spain, France, Monaco, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Albania, Greece, Turkey, Cyprus, and Malta and the British territory of Gibraltar
Religious groupings
- Catholic Europe
- Catholic majority countries, including Andorra, Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Czech republic, France, South and Western Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, Southern Netherlands Poland, Portugal, San Marino, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain.
- Orthodox majority countries, including Belarus, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Georgia, Greece, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Ukraine.
- Protestant Europe
- Protestant majority countries, including Denmark, Finland, North and Eastern Germany, Iceland, Latvia, Northern Netherlands Norway, Sweden
- Muslim majority countries, including Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Turkey
Other groupings
- Civil Code and Common Law Europe: Those parts that adopted a Napoleonic Code style system and those that retained a Common Law system.
- Blue Banana
- Describing the concentration of the wealth/economic productivity of Europe in a banana-shaped band running from north west England, London, through Benelux, eastern France, western Germany to northern Italy.
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