Editing Western Europe (section)

==Modern divisions==

===UN geoscheme classification===
[[File:Europe subregion map UN geoscheme.svg|thumb|upright=1.15|Subregions of Europe by [[United Nations geoscheme]].<br>{{legend|#FF8080|[[Eastern Europe]]}}
{{legend|#4080FF|[[Northern Europe]]}}
{{legend|#00FF00|[[Southern Europe]]}}
{{legend|#00FFFF|Western Europe}}]]

The United Nations geoscheme is a system devised by the [[United Nations Statistics Division]] (UNSD) which divides the countries of the world into [[region]]al and [[subregion]]al groups, based on the [[UN M49|M49 coding classification]]. The partition is for statistical convenience and does not imply any assumption regarding political or other affiliation of countries or territories.<ref name="m49">{{Cite web|url=https://unstats.un.org/unsd/methodology/m49/|title= Methodology|website=UNSD |access-date=17 June 2019}}</ref>

In the UN geoscheme, the following countries are classified as Western Europe:<ref name="m49" />
* [[Austria]]
* [[Belgium]]
* [[France]]
* [[Germany]]
* [[Liechtenstein]]
* [[Luxembourg]]
* [[Monaco]]
* [[Netherlands]]
* [[Switzerland]]

===CIA classification===
[[File: Europe subregion map world factbook.svg|thumb|upright=1.15|Regions of Europe based on ''[[The World Factbook|CIA World Factbook]]'':
<small>{{legend|#007FFF|[[Northern Europe]]}}
{{legend|#00FFFF|Western Europe}}
{{legend|#F0DC82|[[Central Europe]]}}
{{legend|#FF0000|[[Southwest Europe]]}}
{{legend|#66FF00|[[Southern Europe]]}}
{{legend|#D2691E|[[Southeast Europe]]}}
{{legend|#F88379|[[Eastern Europe]]}}</small>]]

The [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] classifies seven countries as belonging to "Western Europe":<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/fields/2144.html |title=Field listing: Location |publisher=CIA World Factbook |access-date=30 July 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110524151212/https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/fields/2144.html |archive-date=24 May 2011 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

*[[Belgium]]
*[[France]]
*[[Republic of Ireland|Ireland]]
*[[Luxembourg]]
*[[Monaco]]
*[[Netherlands]]
*[[United Kingdom]]

The CIA also classifies three countries as belonging to "Southwestern Europe":

*[[Andorra]]
*[[Portugal]]
*[[Spain]]

=== EuroVoc classification===
[[File:European_Regions_EuroVoc_(Denmark_in_Northern_Europe).png|thumb|upright=1.15|European sub-regions according to [[Eurovoc|EuroVoc]]:
<small>{{legend|#0076D3|[[Northern Europe]]}}
{{legend|#67E863|Western Europe}}
{{legend|#FCFC00|[[Southern Europe]]}}
{{legend|#E62121|[[Central and Eastern Europe]]}}</small>]]
[[EuroVoc]] is a multilingual thesaurus maintained by the [[Publications Office of the European Union]]. In this thesaurus, the countries of Europe are grouped into sub-regions.<ref name="EuroVoc">{{cite web|title=EuroVoc: 7206 Europe|url=https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/concept-scheme/-/resource?uri=http://eurovoc.europa.eu/100277|accessdate=9 February 2021}}</ref> The following countries are included in the sub-group Western Europe:<ref name="WE">{{cite web|title=EuroVoc: Western Europe|url=https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/concept/-/resource?uri=http://eurovoc.europa.eu/913&lang=en|accessdate=9 February 2021}}</ref>
* [[Andorra]]
* [[Austria]]
* [[Belgium]]
* [[France]]
* [[Germany]]
* [[Republic of Ireland|Ireland]]
* [[Liechtenstein]]
* [[Luxembourg]]
* [[Monaco]]
* [[Netherlands]]
* [[Switzerland]]
* [[United Kingdom]]

===UN regional groups: Western European and Others Group===
[[File:UN WEOG members.svg|thumb|upright=1.4|WEOG member and observer states]]
The [[Western European and Others Group]] is one of several unofficial [[United Nations Regional Groups|Regional Groups]] in the [[United Nations]] that act as [[voting bloc]]s and negotiation forums. Regional voting blocs were formed in 1961 to encourage voting to various UN bodies from different regional groups. The European members of the group are:<ref>[http://data.unaids.org/pub/Manual/2009/jc1682_governancehandbook_lr_en.pdf ''UNAIDS, The Governance Handbook'', January 2010] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110109143548/http://data.unaids.org/pub/Manual/2009/jc1682_governancehandbook_lr_en.pdf |date=9 January 2011 }} (p. 29).</ref>
{{colbegin|colwidth=12em}}
*[[Andorra]]
*[[Austria]]
*[[Belgium]]
*[[Denmark]]
*[[Finland]]
*[[France]]
*[[Germany]]
*[[Greece]]
*[[Iceland]]
*[[Republic of Ireland|Ireland]]
*[[Italy]]
*[[Liechtenstein]]
*[[Luxembourg]]
*[[Malta]]
*[[Monaco]]
*[[Netherlands]]
*[[Norway]]
*[[Portugal]]
*[[San Marino]]
*[[Spain]]
*[[Sweden]]
*[[Switzerland]]
*[[Turkey]]
*[[United Kingdom]]
{{colend}}

In addition, [[Australia]], [[Canada]], [[Israel]] and [[New Zealand]] are members of the group, with the [[United States]] as observer.