Not really the same. 'America' is less used than "north america" and "south america" or 'Americas', and nobody would call the US "North america". Since importan

Not really the same. 'America' is less used than "north america" and "south america" or 'Americas', and nobody would call the US "North america". Since important countries such as UK and Switzerland are not part of the EU, and since individual countries are just as well known as EU itself, "Europe" or "Western europe" does not stand for EU , except when the context makes it clear.