> 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.

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).