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EU, not Europe.
by hk__2 11mo ago
EU, not Europe.
- embedding-shape 11mo agoThe Register, being British, should probably have gotten this right, but people constantly get this wrong. Even a lot of people living in the union don't even realize the different between EU, Europe, EEA, Schengen and all the other layers, so maybe it's hard to blame "outsiders" from not getting it either. I'm guessing maybe the "European Commission" threw them off, because it's an EU entity (basically the executive branch), not "Europe wide" one, which the name kind of implies. But then "EU" also implies "Europe wide" in its name, and people seem to kind of get the difference most of the times.
- rsynnott 11mo agoThe Register know very well what the EU is. However, in practice, the EU is colloquially referred to as "Europe" in many contexts in the UK. The rules the EU establishes will also apply to the EEA, and in practice will almost certainly also be adopted by the UK, which has tended to take its lead from the EU on such matters since Brexit. So, while pedantically these are not rules for Europe, _for practical purposes_ they likely will be.
- a2800276 11mo agoAlso, most people are aware that "Europe" the continent is unlikely to make such decisions, so it's pretty obvious what's meant by context.
- littlestymaar 11mo agoIt's not obvious at all actually, since there are many European things that also affect Island, Norway and Switzerland for being part of EFTA, but an equally high number of things that don't. And even the EU itself is pretty fragmented with various overlapping areas with different rules. As someone who's studied European relations, I can tell you that it's a real mess, and the fact that journalists don't accurately reporting the facts definitely isn't helpful.
- ttoinou 11mo agoThere are others ways to coordinates european countries than EU institutions
- Aardwolf 11mo agoWhat continent does UK consider itself part of then?
- rsynnott 11mo agoContext matters; you can generally tell whether someone's talking politics or geography.
- Aardwolf 11mo agoBut in politics the distinction between EU and Europe matters, there's the political EU region, but countries like Switzerland and Norway are politically still in Europe despite not being in EU just due to all the neighboring countries, in theory same should apply to UK
- crote 11mo agoIt likes to believe it is somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
- freehorse 11mo agoWhenever I go to the UK, people there seem to consistently refer to EU or the rest/continental europe in general as "europe", esp in political/economic context. My impression is that the UK is just too important to be grouped together with other countries.
- mr_toad 11mo agoAsk two different people and get three different answers.
- ksec 11mo ago>the EU is colloquially referred to as "Europe" in many contexts in the UK. It really should have been EUR for Europe, and EU as in European Union.
- NoboruWataya 11mo agoI think most people realise there is a difference. If nothing else, Brexit made it very clear to those who didn't already know that you can be in this part of the world but not in the EU. But rightly or wrongly, people still use "Europe" as shorthand for "the European Union". It's no different to referring to the US as "America". I do think the media should aim to do better so agree that the Register should have used the correct term.
- _w04p 11mo agoI find your comparison not so convincing. While there is some common misidentification between the EU and Europe, I’ve never heard anyone in the world refer to “America” in a way that was not for the United States.
- KAMSPioneer 11mo agoIn my personal experience, people from Latin American countries will sometimes point out that they are American because they come from North or South America. Which is, of course, true; however, in English conversation, it's often nothing more than pedantry. In Spanish it makes more sense, since there is a separate demonym for a US person that doesn't co-opt the term "American." Outside of Romance language speakers born on the American continents, I agree that everyone seems fine calling US-born persons "Americans" without much confusion nor gnashing of teeth.
- lazide 11mo agoIt’s even more amusing in some ways. A common way to refer to those from the USA in Brazil, for instance (even an official one!) is ‘Norte Americano’. Which is all kinds of weird because - what about Mexico and Canada? And what about the ‘United states’ part? It’s just to disambiguate from ‘Americano’ as in what others in South America sometimes use to refer to latin Americans and as a little bit of a FU to the USA, hahah.
- KAMSPioneer 11mo ago
- School-Cotton 11mo agoYou’re right, but this is probably a losing battle. People are probably never going to stop colloquially referring to the political entity that contains most of Europe’s land and population as “Europe”. And, being on an island, British people are probably never going to stop thinking of “the continent” as at least a little bit of a different thing from themselves.
- mschuster91 11mo agoAnd on top of that, when it comes to anything radio, ITU has quite the lot to say as well, and you got the ham radio community / IARU as well. Radio, by virtue of physically not caring about borders, is a really really hot mess, with lots of very powerful and very monied interests floating around.
- TitaRusell 11mo agoSwitzerland is not in the EU but they follow EU legislation. It's kinda like Canada and the US.
- wkat4242 11mo agoNot directly though. They get some exceptions and they have referenda to implement things. They align with the EU a lot for commercial reasons but not completely. Same with Norway. And really, if they did align completely there'd be no reason to not join.
- StopDisinfo910 11mo agoIt’s called a metonymy and is purposeful. Everyone understood that it was the relevant nearly pan-European political entity which was actually designed by the geographical designation.
- Zironic 11mo agoIt's essentially exactly the same as when people refer to the US as 'America'. While the US does not encompass all of the American continent, there is only one political entity called 'America' so it's not ambigious.
- cromka 11mo agoAs others mentioned, this is British press and Britts tend to colloquially refer to EU as 'Europe'.
- afavour 11mo agoI think people understand that a continent isn’t making decisions.
- ttoinou 11mo agoTo be really pedantic we should acknowledge there's no good reason to separate Europe from Asia, it's all one geographical continent. The distinction between EU and Europe is very important. They're "word stealing" something as neutral as a geographical concept, to make it political. But in this case here, probably if EU legislate on this, others non-EU european countries will follow
- deleted 11mo ago[deleted]
- fundatus 11mo ago> To be really pedantic we should acknowledge there's no good reason to separate Europe from Asia, it's all one geographical continent. To be even more pedantic you have to throw in Africa as well, as that is connected by land to Asia just like Europe is! Now we have the supercontinent Afroeurasia which contains like 85% of the worlds population.
- throwaway198846 11mo agoSuez Canal exists and cuts off Africa from Eurasia
- fundatus 11mo agoObviously, but in case the sarcasm of my comment didn't come through: I was trying to make the point that you can't draw lines between continents just because of geography (or tectonic plates for that matter). It's arbitrary - after all we can't even agree which continents do exist. Relevant watching: Map Men: How many continents are there? (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrsxRJdwfM0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrsxRJdwfM0)
- thrance 11mo agoEU is more Europe than USA is America, yet you don't see much complaining about the latter.
- 0x457 11mo ago> yet you don't see much complaining about the latter. I see that a lot. It just needs people from not the US, but from Americas in comments. Suddenly there are people that are complaining about it.
- FinnKuhn 11mo agoDo you also write "USA, not America" for every headline that uses the later?
- deleted 11mo ago[deleted]
- PunchTornado 11mo agoYou are the one who corrects america with usa?