Politician in European country, powerful country? (6)

I believe the answer is:

empire

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

'powerful country?' is the definition.
'empire' can be an answer for 'country?' (thesaurus). I am not sure about the 'powerful' bit.

'politician in european country' is the wordplay.
'politician' becomes 'MP' (Member of Parliament).
'in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'european country' becomes 'eire' (Eire is an example).
'mp' inserted inside 'eire' is 'EMPIRE'.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for empire that I've seen before include "Jurisdiction" , "Group of states ruled by one monarch" , "Group of states under the same sovereign" , "See 5" , "Sovereign state" .)

I've seen this clue in The Independent.

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