Europe is a layered thing:

1. You've got Old Europa from immemorial times up to 1200 BC - The collapse of the Bronze Age.

2. Then you have the Greco-Roman period up to the collapse of the Roman Empire.

3. From the 15 century onwards there's been a crystallization of today's nations.

4. The European Union is just the most recent condition of an unnatural political and economical organization of roughly 400M people. There's been an increase of GDP of its members, but the real price paid was the loss of sovereignty and freedom.