The point is that only UK citizens simplify that to &quot;Europe&quot; instead of saying &quot;Continental Europe&quot;. Also, it is strange that they only exclude themselves, not Scandinavia or Iceland.<p>This is really a political issue. Here in Germany nobody would ever think of excluding UK when talking about &quot;Europe&quot;. The same goes for France, Belgium, and so on. And nobody would ever have to explicitly say &quot;European Union&quot; just to make clear that they also mean UK. Of course UK is part of Europe! We have deep historical, cultural and political connections, let alone the massive economic interrelations - as depicted in the article.<p>Their strange view is a pity, and we can only hope that the UK politicians will change their view - either by understanding, or by being replaced with more sane politicians in the next elections.