seems a bit odd that "EU" is green (good) but Switzerland is yellow (not as good)
bit of a stretch to say Switzerland isn't European
(and there seem to be zero UK companies)
bit of a stretch to say Switzerland isn't European
(and there seem to be zero UK companies)
Thus EU membership has lots of asterixes and grey areas unlike the US which is a federacy the EU is a confederacy (Look at Brexit). Switzerland is somewhat unique in that it's both EU and not EU. Take the UK for instance -- their grey area is "Northern Ireland".
(In particular, free movement of people in the bloc as I understand it.)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_movement_for_work...
And it has the EU TLD.
(similar to the same way the EU has attempted to commandeer the term "Europe" to mean itself)
If it was about what Europeans create, I would be receptive. Instead, they are promoting whatever is in the European Commission agenda, which is radically different to what I need.
It seems like a case of appropriation until you realize that most European supranational organizations share similar origins, goals and members.
A good rule of thumb is that if a British person says Europe or European they mean "the continent" and are including Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, Lichtenstein, Vatican City etc, but excluding the UK itself.
If a German/French/Spanish/Italian person says Europe or European, especially if they've been to university, they a very likely to mean the EU and only the EU. These people usually don't consider Switzerland or Britain to the "European" as a consequence.
People outside of Europe always mean the continent and population, including the UK, when they use these terms.
German, been to university. Same for my whole social system. That's absolutely BS what you're saying. Especially German speaking countries have a stronger bond than EU/Europe because of "DACH" and a shared culture (see the anthroposophy discussion recently).