I'd never call someone from the Netherlands north European, it's western Europe

bonoboTP an hour ago | parent | next [-]

It's North when contrasted with the South, like the Mediterranean countries, and West when contrasted with the East, like the old Easter Bloc.

	▲	anygivnthursday an hour ago \| parent [-]
		And South when contrasted with the "real" North? Northern Europe is a region and while there can be various definitions the most common ones do not include Benelux countries https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Europe

▲

numbers_guy 34 minutes ago | parent | prev [-]

I'd group the Dutch with the Scandinavians as the "other Germanic branches", possibly also including the UK. As a taxonomy it makes far more sense to me. Western Europe is too broad. You have the French and the Portugese and the Spanish which are all quite different.