DNA of Scandinavia/northern germany and Basque Region of france/spain is identical

It is important to note that the colonization of Europe did not occur in discrete migrations, as might appear to be suggested.    The settlement process was complex and in waves from the east and to have been subsequently obscured by millennia [thousands of years] of recurrent gene flow.
Palaeolithic Era
Further information: Paleolithic Europe




The suggested routes of the initial settlement of Europe based on mtDNA haplogroups, Metspalu et al. 2004.


Homo neanderthalensis inhabited much of Europe and western Asia from as far back as 130,000 years ago. They existed in Europe as late as 30,000 years ago. They were replaced by anatomically modern humans (A.M.H.), Cro-Magnoid Homo sapiens, who began to appear in Europe c. 40,000 years ago.      Given that the two hominid species likely co-existed in Europe, anthropologists wondered whether the two interacted.
 
 
Y chromosomal and mtDNA data suggest that modern European DNA derives from Africa,
 
which diverged less than 100,000 years ago, whereas the last common ancestor between the two species lived between 500,000 to 600,000 years ago.
 
While it is conceivable that the autosomes of modern Europeans may retain Neanderthal sequences, Neanderthals were replaced by modern humans. Technological, economic and intellectual advantages not only allowed AMH to better adapt to the Upper Palaeolithic environment of Europe.
 
There has been speculation about the inheritance of specific genes from Neanderthals.     For example one MAPT locus 17q21.3 which is split into deep genetic lineages H1 and H2.   
 
Since the H2 lineage seems restricted to European populations, several authors have suggested inheritance from Neanderthals.    The latest findings by Svante Pääbo, Richard E. Green of the University of California, Santa Cruz and David Reich of Harvard Medical School, comparing the genetic material from the bones of three Neanderthals with that from five modern humans, 
show a relationship between Neanderthals and modern people outside Africa.   This suggests that interbreeding between Neanderthals and homo sapiens occurred in the Middle East (we ARE neanderthals).
 
It is thought that modern humans began to colonize Europe during the Upper Paleolithic about 40,000 years ago.   Some evidence shows the spread of the Aurignacian culture.    From a Y-chromosome perspective, Semino (2000) proposed that the large haplogroup R1 is an ancient Eurasiatic marker brought in by Homo sapiens who diffused west into Europe 40 ky ago.     Haplogroup I might represent another putative Palaeolithic marker whose age has been estimated to 22 kYa.     It arose in Europe from descendants of men arriving in Europe from the Middle East c. 20 - 25 kYa, derived from parent haplogroup IJ.     At this time, another Upper Palaeolithic culture appears, the Gravettian culture.
 
Thus the genetic data suggests that, from a male perspective, modern humans took two colonising routes,
 
one from the Middle East via the Balkans and another from Central Asia to the north of the Black Sea.  
This also explains why DNA from the Basque Region of France/Spain is identical to DNA from Scandinavia [Balkans]. 
 
It is now believed that the haplogroup R1 is substantially younger:
 
a 2008 study dated the most recent common ancestor of the haplogroup R1 by 18.5 kYa, and the most recent ancestor of the haplogroup IJ by 38.5 kYa:
haplogroup IJ colonists formed the first wave and haplogroup R1 arrived much later.