Wider and still wider: Brian Easton looks at the prospects for further expansion of the European Union.

• Author: Easton, Brian

Any examination of Europe poses difficult questions. Even if its geographical bounds can be determined--its geographic centre is probably in Poland--it remains difficult to explain what it represents. Membership of the European Union is one defining characteristic, at least for part of the continent. There are currently 28 members. According to the union's Copenhagen Declaration, this membership requires a stable democracy that respects human rights and the rule of law, a functioning market economy and the acceptance of the obligations of membership, including EU law. These requirements represent a barrier to any closer relationship between Russia and the union.

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There is a plinth at the city centre of Warsaw that shows the distances to other European capitals. It began as a wooden signpost put up just after the Berlin Wall fell, pointing 1122 kilometres east to Moscow and 1122 kilometres west to Brussels. It signalled that while the Poles may be Slavs and were a part of the Soviet Empire, they are also Roman Catholics and attached to Western Europe; indeed Warsaw has the ambience of Paris (although cheaper for the tourist), even if some of the Polish villages seem more out in the steppes. Their 'Western' status has been reinforced by the appointment of Donald Tusk (pronounced Toosk), a previous Polish prime minister, as president of the European Council, which comprises the heads of the EU member states.

To the rest of the world, the plinth and Poland pose the questions of where is Europe and what is Europe? The geographic centre of the European continent is probably in Lithuania, to the north-east of Poland--there is an awful lot of land to the north and east of Moscow. Its population centre is between Frankfurt and Prague, for population densities are higher to the west. The centre of economic activity will be further north, in Germany.

What is Europe is an even more difficult question. One answer is geography; a second might be some notion of the idea of Europe. Another is the membership of the European Union, which requires, according to its Copenhagen Declaration, a stable democracy that respects human rights and the rule of law, a functioning market economy and the acceptance of the obligations of membership, including EU law.

Currently there are 28 members in the European Union--the most recent to join was Croatia in 2013. Undoubtedly affluent Norway and Switzerland would be welcome, although they have chosen to stay out...