Motor spirit in European North-east (6)
I believe the answer is:
engine
'motor' is the definition.
(engine is a kind of motor)
'spirit in european north-east' is the wordplay.
'spirit' becomes 'gin' (I've seen this before).
'in' is an insertion indicator.
'european' becomes 'e' (abbreviation e.g. EU).
'north east' becomes 'ne'.
'e'+'ne'='ene'
'gin' inserted into 'ene' is 'ENGINE'.
(Other definitions for engine that I've seen before include "machinery" , "Machine converting energy into motion" , "eg Nine (anag.)" , "Machine doing work" , "search, maybe" .)