northern Europe vs Europe

northern Europe and Europe both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
northern Europe	Yes	No	No	No
Europe	Yes	No	No	No

northern Europe (noun)	Europe (noun)
the northernmost countries of Europe	an international organization of European countries formed after World War II to reduce trade barriers and increase cooperation among its members
	the nations of the European continent collectively
	the 2nd smallest continent (actually a vast peninsula of Eurasia); the British use `Europe' to refer to all of the continent except the British Isles