"Northern European Union"
Interesting, say more about it.
The Norhern European Union originated from the present day EU. After he financial crisis, and the problems with the 'Southern' countries such as Spain, Portugal and Greece, the 'Northern' countries decided to take matters in to their own hand and abandon the Brussels-dominated EU. The Nothern Eropean Union consists of Scandinavia (Norway, Sweden, Finland), Denmark, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Iceland and The Netherlands. They have again closed their borders to non-NEU nations, but have still good relations with France, Belgium, the United Kingdom, Japan and Israel.
Italy (with it's problematic leader Berlusconi) is almost completely ignored, while the southern countries struggle to restore their economy. The Balkan is again in a civil war, and is a threat to the security of the NEU.
The economy of he NEU on the other hand is booming. Thanks to breakthroughs in environmentally friendly power generation and nuclear waste disposal, as well as a leading authority in science the standard of living is higher than ever before.
The United States are a whole other story. After four years under the leadership of president Obama, another ultra-conservative Republican president rose to power. The national debt increased even more, and the economy was all but completely destroyed. The once proud nation is now on the brink of being a third world country, and has almost no meaning in Global Politics, the NEU has purchased many patents from the US, so hardware similar to Boeing, Bell-Textron, Lockheed-Martin and other companies is ow being developed in the NEU.
Russia is a little better, but still lacks freedom of press, and is still (unoficially) lead by Putin. Relations have improved however and there is a good deal of trade between the NEU and the Russian Federation.
Well, needless to say, the backgrond story still needs a lot of work, but this is more or less the base for my AU.
And yes, I know this is of topic.
Exciting thoughts, but I've had to correct you about the geografi: The term Scandinavia covers the countries of Norway, Sweden and Denmark but do not include Finland! The Nordic Countries are Scandinavia, Iceland, Finland and their connected countries (Greenland etc.)