Medical Screening Policy - Help Defining European Countries

Dear all,

our Medical Screening policy states that if you visit outside 'Europe' you are required to complete a questionnaire regarding your health before you are allowed back into the production area.

No-one on site can define 'Europe' and are reluctant to make a decision. Does anyone know the correct definition of 'Europe' with a list of countries?
I've Googled the question and I'm even more confused as there seems to be a 'Geographical' Europe which includes Russia!............a European Union.....etc.....etc.

HELP!

Why don't you just say "foreign travel in high health risk areas" and forget about Europe / not Europe? I am sure there are plenty of places in Europe you can pick up a decent tummy bug - and plenty of places outside that are really quite safe.

p.s. nice cat (notice I said that cleanly)

There may be more to this than just different definitions. Most possibly this definition is determined by the insurance company your company is using as it most likely is a question on coverage-non coverage.
I think it's advisable to check before guessing on definitions. If it is correct the definition most possibly will be the geographical definition, but even this varies from one insurance company to another ;-)

I would also suggest that countries like New Zealand, Australia, US, Canada etc present very low risk of disease.

Take a pragmatic approach and stop getting hung up on the detail. Put "Europe, US, Canada, Aus, NZ" or "EU, US, Canada, Aus, NZ" because either will cover the majority of low risk countries. If someone kicks up a fuss because someone went to Norway but your procedure says "EU" then it's:

i) unlikely people go to holiday to Norway anyway
ii) unlikely an auditor would notice
iii) unlikely it would be a non conformance, even auditors are a bit pragmatic

What your aim is to ensure that higher risk countries, e.g. India, Mexico etc etc are treated differently and more close questioning is given regarding potential illness while they were away. The point is because I've had this in the past; people go on holiday to some countries and they expect to get ill. Because they expect it, they then don't report it when they return.