Crossword Genius

Continent taking a line on the union (6)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

europe

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'union' is the definition.
(I know that union can be written as Europe)

'continent taking a line' is the wordplay.
'continent' becomes 'eu'.
'taking' says to put letters next to each other.
'a line' becomes 'rope' (rope is a kind of line).
'eu'+'rope'='EUROPE'

'on the' acts as a link.
I am not very happy about this link. Some or all of it may belong to another bit of the clue.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for europe that I've seen before include "several countries" , "lot of countries" , "Britain, France etc" , "Land mass from the Atlantic to the Urals" , "Second-smallest continent" .)

I've seen this clue in the Evening Standard.
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