Europe is a continent, while the European Union is a political and economic union of 27 European countries. Many European countries, such as Norway, Switzerland, the United Kingdom or Ukraine, are in Europe but not in the EU.
Europe is a continent, a geographical idea. The European Union (EU) is an organisation that 27 European countries have chosen to join by signing and ratifying treaties. Being in Europe does not make a country a member of the EU, and the EU does not cover the whole continent.
The limits of Europe are not fixed by any single authority, especially in the east and south-east. Russia and Türkiye stretch across Europe and Asia. Cyprus, Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan sit on the boundary: the UN statistical classification places them in Western Asia, yet Cyprus is an EU member state and Georgia is an official candidate to join. For this reason, the number of “European countries” depends on the definition used, while the number of EU member states is precise: 27.
The confusion is made worse by several European groupings that do not match the EU. The euro area has 21 EU countries. The Schengen Area, where people travel without border checks, has 29 countries, including four that are not in the EU: Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland. The European Economic Area extends the EU single market to Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway. The Council of Europe, a separate human-rights organisation, has 46 member states: it had 47 until Russia ceased to be a member on 16 March 2022.
Example
Norway is a European country but not an EU member. Yet a traveller driving from Sweden to Norway faces no systematic passport check, because both countries are in the Schengen Area. Norwegian companies also sell in the EU single market under the same rules as EU companies, through the European Economic Area. Norway applies many EU rules but does not vote on them in the Council of the EU and elects no members of the European Parliament.
Debates and limits
In everyday language, “Europe” is often used to mean the EU, for example when people speak of “European rules” or “leaving Europe”. Some find this shortcut convenient. Others, including many people in European countries outside the EU, object that it suggests that non-members are less European. This site uses “EU” for the Union and “Europe” for the continent.