Civil European accepts it (6)
I believe the answer is:
polite
'civil' is the definition.
('polite' can be a synonym of 'civil')
'european accepts it' is the wordplay.
'european' becomes 'pole' (Pole is an example**).
'accepts' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'pole' placed around 'it' is 'POLITE'.
(Other definitions for polite that I've seen before include "Well mannered" , "Well-mannered, courteous" , "Cultivated" , "Minding one's p's and q's" , "(Of society) refined" .)