Where does Europe end?

9.58.47pm BST (GMT +0100) Wed 12th Sep 2007

I actually meant to write this at the weekend but have only just got around to it. The catalyst was England playing Israel in the European Championship qualifiers, but someone also recently asked me about Israel taking part in Eurovision and Turkey's aspirations to join the European Union.

I am quite relaxed about these things, although I suspect I would have been less relaxed had Israel beaten us! Israel is a special case I can understand why they have ended up playing football in Europe and why they have joined in the Eurovision song contest, they are certainly not in Europe but does it really matter?

Membership of the European Union is, in my opinion, far more important than the European Championship or Eurovision and is a different matter. Turkey sits on the the edge of Europe and Asia, Russia also spans the two continents. Both of these countries should be allowed to join (subject to meeting the criteria) they are European in so much of their outlook, and in the case of Turkey would their membership not actually send a message to Middle Eastern states and Muslim states about the inclusiveness of Europe?

The EU as a free-trade area can only benefit from having Turkey and Russia (and other countries) in as members, both countries are important in terms of oil pipelines and the EU would benefit from more energy security. The EU as a group of countries that pool some sovereignty could also benefit especially on areas like the environment, but less so than both Turkey or Russia. Turkey is already in NATO, both Russia and Turkey will be crucial trading partners and crucial partners in combating climate change in the future so we should be ready to welcome them.

A lot of borders are more historical accidents rather than anything else, maybe we should bear this in mind.

England have tonight beaten Russia so they can also continue to play in the European Championships (unless they beat us in the return match) and Israel can stay too.