Northwest Europe

The Northwestern Europe area is a major region of Europe. As INTERREG III B NWE , it is designated as a support area of ​​the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). The area covers an area of ​​approximately 787,400 km². With almost 171 million inhabitants, around 45% of the EU's population live there . The population density is around 217 inhabitants per km² and thus far above the EU average of 115 inhabitants per km². As the only non-EU member, parts of Switzerland also belong to the development area.

The area includes Belgium , Luxembourg , the United Kingdom and Ireland with their entire national territory. The following regions also belong to the funding area:

• France : the regions of Nord-Pas-de-Calais , Picardy , Normandy , Île de France , Center-Val de Loire , Champagne-Ardenne , Lorraine , Bourgogne , Alsace , Franche-Comté , Brittany , Pays de la Loire .
• Germany : the states of Baden-Württemberg , Hesse , Lower Saxony , North Rhine-Westphalia , Rhineland-Palatinate , Saarland and, in Bavaria, the administrative districts of Swabia , Lower , Middle and Upper Franconia .
• Netherlands : the provinces of Overijssel , Gelderland , Flevoland , Utrecht , Noord-Holland , Zuid-Holland , Zeeland , Noord-Brabant and Limburg .
• Switzerland : the cantons of Basel-Stadt , Basel-Landschaft , Aargau , Solothurn , Bern , Jura , Uri , Schwyz , Obwalden , canton Nidwalden , Lucerne , Glarus , Zug , Zurich and Neuchâtel .

However, there is no more precise delimitation based on geographical criteria beyond this administrative delimitation. Neither a natural space nor a geopolitical delimitation is easily feasible here.

Cultural area

The historical region of Europe called "Northwest Europe" by Christian Giordano and other scientists - which is considered the cradle of capitalism , industrial society and modern democracies - goes far beyond the administrative-geographical definition and also includes a. Germany, Austria and Switzerland as well as large parts of Scandinavia.

Web links

• Website of the North West Europe Program (English)
• European Commission: INTERREG III B - North West Europe (summary)
• Map of the funding area (PDF file; 500 kB)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Interdependent Diversity: The Historic Regions of Europe. In: Karl Kaser u. a. (Ed.): Europe and the borders in the head. Wieser-Verlag, Klagenfurt 2003, pp. 113-134.
2. ^ Dieter Haller (text), Bernd Rodekohr (illustrations): Dtv-Atlas Ethnologie . 2nd Edition. dtv, Munich 2010.