Geographical stretch too far  Cape Verde is just too far from Europe – it is 400 miles off the coast of Senegal compared to almost 1,900 miles from the Portuguese mainland. [1] The European Union has never had a member from Africa, and neither have other European institutions such as the Council of Europe. [2] The Canary Islands and similar archipelagos are not helpful as a precedent because they are integral parts of other nations that are themselves clearly positioned on the European continent.  The sole condition for EU membership is that the applicant must be a European state, something Cape Verde is not. Would the EU really be willing to have a member so far from it as a full member, when Morocco, just across the strait of Gibraltar, was rejected for that reason? [3]  [1] ‘Distance from Praia to…’, timeanddate.com,   [2] ‘Member States’, coe.int,   [3] ‘Legal questions of enlargement’, Briefing No 23, europarl.europa.eu,