Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Europe

Dividing Europe

The need to divide Europe into large trans-national parts arises in many contexts, leading to various ad-hoc terms. Since these terms exist, we have articles on them, but in most cases it's not clear what, precisely, the articles are supposed to be about. I have looked at the situation, and some of these articles are in a really bad state.

Some regions are relatively well defined and not (very) problematic:

• British Isles – United Kingdom and Ireland.
• Iberian Peninsula – Portugal and Spain.
• Benelux – Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg.
• Baltic states – Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania.
• Nordic countries – Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden. (Also Greenland.)
• Scandinavia – Denmark, Norway, Sweden. (Article also says Finland is sometimes included.)
• Balkans – Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia. Sometimes also included: Moldova, Romania, Slovenia, Turkey.
• Alpine states – Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Austria, Slovenia. Also Germany, France, Italy, Monaco.
• Latin Europe – Essentially Portugal, Spain, France, Italy.
• Romance-speaking Europe – Andorra, France, Italy, Moldova, Monaco, Portugal, Romania, San Marino, Spain, Vatican.
• Slavic Europe – Countries with Slavic languages.
• Celtic nations – Ireland plus parts of UK and France.

The reason why I started looking at this is the sad state of the following, which for some reason is on my watchlist:

• Germanic Europe – Gives a sloppy OR definition related to "Germanic culture".

But as soon as you add a compass direction to "Europe", it gets incredibly messy:

• Northern Europe – Uses an internal UN Cold War era definition (Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Sweden, UK).
• Western Europe – Uses the Cold War era political definition (Andorra, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece[!], Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, San Marino, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK, Vatican) but also highlights the UN definition (Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Monaco, Netherlands, Switzerland).
• Southern Europe – Simply lists the several definitions (Geographical, UN, climatical, phytogeographical, linguistic).
• Eastern Europe – Explains that the term is extremely volatile, then lists various definitions (UN, CIA World Factbook, geographical, political/cultural), in most cases without saying in detail which countries they cover.
• Central Europe – The article lists states that are normally included (Austria, Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Liechtenstein, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Switzerland) and states that are sometimes included in part. It also lists the UN definition (as before + Croatia, Luxembourg, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania).
  • Mitteleuropa – Apparently a content fork under the German name.
• Northwest Europe – Gives a geographic and a linguistic definition. Also a Canadian/British definition from military history.
• Southwest Europe – Redirects to Iberian Peninsula.
• Northeast Europe – Redlink. (And I am not asking for this to change, at least not without discussion!)
• Southeast Europe – Initially defines it as a recent term for the Balkans, but proceeds to give several different definitions.
• Central and Eastern Europe – Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia, Kosovo, Albania, Montenegro, Macedonia, Bulgaria. Political term for ex-communist countries that are not CIS members.
  • East-Central Europe – Essentially the same thing.

Given the problems with the latter block of articles, I wonder if we can't simply merge them all (or almost all) into Regions of Europe. Any other ideas what to do with this mess? Hans Adler 23:47, 12 September 2010 (UTC)

Europe articles have been selected for the Wikipedia 0.8 release

Version 0.8 is a collection of Wikipedia articles selected by the Wikipedia 1.0 team for offline release on USB key, DVD and mobile phone. Articles were selected based on their assessed importance and quality, then article versions (revisionIDs) were chosen for trustworthiness (freedom from vandalism) using an adaptation of the WikiTrust algorithm.

We would like to ask you to review the Europe articles and revisionIDs we have chosen. Selected articles are marked with a diamond symbol (♦) to the right of each article, and this symbol links to the selected version of each article. If you believe we have included or excluded articles inappropriately, please contact us at Wikipedia talk:Version 0.8 with the details. You may wish to look at your WikiProject's articles with cleanup tags and try to improve any that need work; if you do, please give us the new revisionID at Wikipedia talk:Version 0.8. We would like to complete this consultation period by midnight UTC on Monday, October 11th.

We have greatly streamlined the process since the Version 0.7 release, so we aim to have the collection ready for distribution by the end of October, 2010. As a result, we are planning to distribute the collection much more widely, while continuing to work with groups such as One Laptop per Child and Wikipedia for Schools to extend the reach of Wikipedia worldwide. Please help us, with your WikiProject's feedback!

For the Wikipedia 1.0 editorial team, SelectionBot 23:00, 19 September 2010 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Featured portal review/Portugal

I've listed Portal:Portugal for demotion from featured status as it has not been updated properly for many years. If you'd like to join in the discussion or improve the portal to meet the Featured portal criteria, please do so. Bencherlite^Talk 17:40, 29 September 2010 (UTC)

Proposed deletion of European mandatory age limits and related laws

The article European mandatory age limits and related laws has been proposed for deletion. The proposed-deletion notice added to the article should explain why.

While all contributions to Wikipedia are appreciated, content or articles may be deleted for any of several reasons.

You may prevent the proposed deletion by removing the {{proposed deletion/dated}} notice, but please explain why in your edit summary or on the article's talk page.

Please consider improving the article to address the issues raised. Removing {{proposed deletion/dated}} will stop the proposed deletion process, but other deletion processes exist. The speedy deletion process can result in deletion without discussion, and articles for deletion allows discussion to reach consensus for deletion. Hugahoody (talk) 23:02, 12 February 2011 (UTC)

File:EU-Agreements.svg

This map desperately needs an update. I can't find the uploader and can't really make sense of the grouping into categores. Something needs to be rebuilt from the ground up. Either the map in question or the table here. --U5K0 (talk) 14:02, 21 February 2011 (UTC)

Citation templates now support more identifiers

Recent changes were made to citations templates (such as {{citation}}, {{cite journal}}, {{cite web}}...). In addition to what was previously supported (bibcode, doi, jstor, isbn, ...), templates now support arXiv, ASIN, JFM, LCCN, MR, OL, OSTI, RFC, SSRN and Zbl. Before, you needed to place |id={{arxiv|0123.4567}} (or worse |url=http://arxiv.org/abs/0123.4567), now you can simply use |arxiv=0123.4567, likewise for |id={{JSTOR|0123456789}} and |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/0123456789 → |jstor=0123456789.

The full list of supported identifiers is given here (with dummy values):

• {{cite journal |author=John Smith |year=2000 |title=How to Put Things into Other Things |journal=Journal of Foobar |volume=1 |issue=2 |pages=3–4 |arxiv=0123456789 |asin=0123456789 |bibcode=0123456789 |doi=0123456789 |jfm=0123456789 |jstor=0123456789 |lccn=0123456789 |isbn=0123456789 |issn=0123456789 |mr=0123456789 |oclc=0123456789 |ol=0123456789 |osti=0123456789 |rfc=0123456789 |pmc=0123456789 |pmid=0123456789 |ssrn=0123456789 |zbl=0123456789 |id={{para|id|____}} }}

Obviously not all citations needs all parameters, but this streamlines the most popular ones and gives both better metadata and better appearances when printed. Headbomb {talk / contribs / physics / books} 02:47, 8 March 2011 (UTC)

List of sovereign states in Europe by GDP (PPP) per capita

The above article has been renamed from "List of countries in Europe by GDP (PPP) per capita" along with the others in the "group". However, none of the cross links have been changed from "country" to "sovereign state" which makes it a complete mess. Trouble is I am not certain if I should be putting a rename tag on the articles, or should be re-writing the links so the whole thing is correct. My opinion is with the former, but I thought I'd get a second or third opinion before I act. Any ideas? Cheers. --Richhoncho (talk) 11:44, 30 April 2011 (UTC)

Location maps

I worked on Location map Europe2 and got it to working with three of the {{Location map}} templates. So there are three map templates that know of:

Location map Europe

Location map Europe2

Location map Europe relief

–droll [chat] 23:04, 8 May 2011 (UTC)

History book

I have created a book on the history of Europe at Book:EuropeHistory. I was wondering if the project would be interested in helping out. - [[::User:Presidentman|Presidentman]] (talk · contribs) (Talkback) Random Picture of the Day 21:38, 22 May 2011 (UTC)

Rating articles

The lists of Top, High, Mid, etc importance articles is just plain ridiculous. Someone needs to rip through it and remove all the inflated gradings of the Space articles. Every Space development is rated as either a Top or High importance article.

The Top 100 popular music lists also need to be pushed down to the lower categories along with all the other competition lists.

Pan-European history, art and architecture articles need a place either in the Top or High section. Renaissance architecture, Romanesque architecture, and Gothic architecture were all pan-European.

Amandajm (talk) 09:41, 16 July 2011 (UTC)

Antisemitism

Why does anti-semitism have its own entry on the Europe portal category tree when it should be under the already present racism category? Is antisemitism different from other forms of racism? Totally new to this, tried to fix it, got lost in the quagmire, gave up and decided to post here, most probably the wrong place..... — Preceding unsigned comment added by 119.139.17.60 (talk) 15:12, 28 October 2011 (UTC)

Asking for help

On the Wikipedia page Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Croatia#Information it takes a while exhausting debate on the writing and writing at all of minority languages in articles about settlements in Croatia. Please if you have time, look at the page and try to help us in forming some kind of agreement. We will highly appreciate your effort.--MirkoS18 (talk) 22:52, 16 December 2011 (UTC)

Perth requested-move notification

A requested move survey was started at Talk:Perth_(disambiguation)#Requested_move, which proposes to move:

• Perth → Perth, Western Australia
• Perth, Scotland → Perth, Perthshire
• Perth (disambiguation) → Perth

Background: There was a previous requested-move survey which ran from late May to mid June. There was a great deal of controversy surrounding the closure and subsequent events, which involved a number of reverts and re-reverts which are the subject of an ongoing arbitration case. There was a move review process, which was closed with a finding that the original requested-move closure was endorsed; however, the move review process is relatively new and untried. — P.T. Aufrette (talk) 03:05, 26 June 2012 (UTC)

{{neweuc}}

Template:Neweuc has been nominated for deletion -- 76.65.131.160 (talk) 22:42, 15 July 2012 (UTC)

France portal at FPR

Portal:France has been nominated for a featured portal review. During this review, editors may declare "Keep" or "Delist" the portal from featured status. Please leave your comments and help us to return the portal to featured quality. If concerns are not addressed during the review period, portals may lose its status as featured portals. The instructions for the review process are here. Reviewers' concerns are here. JJ98 (Talk / Contribs) 09:37, 11 September 2012 (UTC)

Category move discussion

Recently a number of categories, including one related to this project, were moved without any discussion. The category related to this project is Category:European television navigational boxes, which was moved to Category:Europe television navigational boxes. The moves have been opposed and a new discussion is in progress at Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Log/2012 September 17#Television navigational boxes. --AussieLegend (talk) 17:35, 17 September 2012 (UTC)

{{Europe topic|Symbols of}}

Since there are many articles sources that use the Template type {{Culture of England}}, in which it is linked "National symbol of", it's more that it is changing this single template, with a link to "National symbol of" and not "Symbol of" as it is now. Someone is able to make this change? --Kasper2006 (talk) 06:23, 19 September 2012 (UTC)

Hungary anyone?

Is there a reason WikiProject Hungary is omitted from WikiProject Europe's list of child projects? Are any other countries missing? -Mabeenot (talk) 18:08, 28 September 2012 (UTC)

The sovereign-debt crisis

I posted a question at WT:EU#The sovereign-debt crisis. I was unsure which talk page would be more appropriate. Your feedback would be appreciated.
—Sowlos (talk) 19:00, 18 October 2012 (UTC)

Portal:Geography at portal peer review

Portal:Geography is now up for portal peer review, the review page is at Wikipedia:Portal peer review/Geography/archive1. I've put a bit of effort into this as part of a featured portal drive related to portals linked from the top-right corner of the Main Page, and feedback would be appreciated prior to featured portal candidacy. Thank you for your time, — Cirt (talk) 21:03, 12 November 2012 (UTC)

Unifying introductory paragraphs on EU member state articles

I would like to propose that all articles pertaining to the 27 member states of the EU share a uniform introductory paragraph introducing all countries as, first and foremost, states of the European Union. Post Lisbon Treaty, the concept of fully independent and sovereign nation states in Europe is outdated when such major areas of public policy are now agreed upon at the European level, with much deeper integration due to arrive in the imminent future. The wikipedia definition of a sovereign state is as follows:

"A sovereign state is a political organization with a centralized government that has supreme independent authority over a geographic area. It has a permanent population, a government, and the capacity to enter into relations with other sovereign states. It is also normally understood to be a state which is neither dependent on nor subject to any other power or state"

It is, therefore, not only misleading but inaccurate to introduce the various countries as 'sovereign' or 'independent' as if they are not dependent upon or subject to the powers of the EU, considering the fact that should their national parliaments fail to incorporate EU law they face prosecution by the European Court of Justice. Wikipedia would do well to reflect this fact in the introductory paragraphs, preferably within the first few sentences. This would of course merely involve minor corrections to the intro paragraphs of 27 countries. Please discuss... Richie wright1980 (talk) 11:04, 30 January 2013 (UTC)

We have List of sovereign states#Criteria for inclusion, which specifies that countries declare themselves as sovereign states and are recognised as such by others. That applies to the countries within the EU. Ghmyrtle (talk) 19:38, 30 January 2013 (UTC)

Portal:Geography for featured portal consideration

• Geography

I've nominated Portal:Geography for featured portal candidacy, discussion is at Wikipedia:Featured portal candidates/Portal:Geography. Thank you for your time, — Cirt (talk) 21:25, 4 February 2013 (UTC)

European Bananas

The Blue Banana and Golden Banana seem to overlap. Is there an overview article on this, similar to Megaregions of the United States ? -- 65.92.180.137 (talk) 03:37, 26 March 2013 (UTC)

Talk:Archaeogenetics of the Cucuteni–Trypillian culture#Recent edits and WP:BRD

Hi all

A discussion has started due to recent edits that have been challenged.

Would any interested parties please join the discussion.

Thanks Chaosdruid (talk) 14:46, 15 May 2013 (UTC)

Deletion of "Human trafficking in [..]"

There are several articles about Human trafficing in various European Countries, which are just a direct copy of some U.S. goverment report. All articles (I checked) mentioned these problem as unresolved since 2010. I therefore think a deletion of most of them is appropriate. Since I am no Wikipedia author I was unsure whether these articles are suitable for a speedy deletion, proposed deletion or regular one, I am just mentioning it here in the hope somebody more knowledgeable will know what to do.

The articles: http://en.wikipedia.org/enwiki/w/index.php?title=Special%3AWhatLinksHere&target=Human+trafficking+in+Germany — Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.76.47.115 (talk) 09:23, 1 June 2013 (UTC)

Scandinavia

I noticed that WP:WikiProject Scandinavia redirects to WP:WikiProject European history, rather, shouldn't it redirect here? -- 65.94.79.6 (talk) 21:51, 28 June 2013 (UTC)

That would make sense, but both of these projects appear to be inactive at the moment. Don't expect a lot of replies. –Mabeenot (talk) 12:47, 29 June 2013 (UTC)

Duplicated list of presidents of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe

There are duplicate lists at Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe#Presidents and List of Presidents of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. I've started a discussion at talk:Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe#List of presidents to determine whether it is best to have a stand alone list or a section. As that page doesn't seem highly watched I'm advertising the discussion here. Thryduulf (talk) 17:48, 2 July 2013 (UTC)

THE UN about the Statistical division geoscheme

Seeing all the spats about European sub-divisions (Europe is quite small for dividing!), I have decided to contact the UN and as what they think abou the fact that their geoscheme is so extensively used on Wiki. This is what I received:

Dear xxxxx,

Thank you for your email.

The geographical groupings used by the United Nations Statistics Division follow the M49 Standard for Area Codes for Statistical use, details of which can be found here: http://unstats.un.org/unsd/methods/m49/m49.htm

The designations employed and the presentation of material at this site do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Secretariat of the United Nations concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. The assignment of countries or areas to specific groupings is for statistical convenience and does not imply any assumption regarding political or other affiliation of countries or territories by the United Nations.

"Regions" are so drawn as to obtain greater homogeneity in sizes of population, demographic circumstances and accuracy of demographic statistics (another example is Russia -- it is in the continent of Asia but it belongs in the Eastern Europe "region"). This nomenclature is widely used in international statistics but it is by no means universal.

I hope this is useful.

Best regards,

The UN Demographic Yearbook Team.