Central and Eastern Europe is a geopolitical term encompassing the countries inNortheast Europe (primarily theBaltics),Central Europe (primarily theVisegrád Group[1][2]),Eastern Europe, andSoutheast Europe (primarily theBalkans), usually meaning formercommunist states from theEastern Bloc andWarsaw Pact inEurope, as well as from formerYugoslavia. Scholarly literature often uses the abbreviationsCEE orCEEC for this term.[3][4][5] TheOrganisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) also uses the term "Central and Eastern European Countries" (CEECs) for a group comprising some of these countries. This term is sometimes used as an alternative to the term "Eastern Europe," for more neutral grouping.[6][7][8][9][10]
.png) Central and Eastern Europe |  |
The termCEE includes theEastern Bloc (Warsaw Pact) countries west of the post-World War II border with the former Soviet Union; the independent states in former Yugoslavia (which were not considered part of the Eastern bloc); and the threeBaltic states –Estonia,Latvia,Lithuania (which chose not to join theCIS with the other 12 former republics of the USSR).The CEE countries are further subdivided by their accession status to theEuropean Union (EU): the eight first-wave accession countries that joined the EU on 1 May 2004 (Estonia,Latvia,Lithuania,Czech Republic,Slovakia,Poland,Hungary, andSlovenia), the two second-wave accession countries that joined on 1 January 2007 (Romania andBulgaria) and the third-wave accession country that joined on 1 July 2013 (Croatia). According to theWorld Bank 2008 analysis, the transition to advanced market economies is over for all 10 countries that joined the EU in 2004 and 2007.[11]
The CEE countries include the former socialist states, which extend east ofAustria,Germany (western part), andItaly; north ofGreece andTurkey (European part); south ofFinland andSweden; and west ofBelarus,Moldova,Russia, andUkraine:
| Country |  European Union |  NATO | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Albania | Candidate negotiating | Member state | ||
 Bosnia and Herzegovina | Candidate | Membership Action Plan | ||
 Bulgaria | Member state | Member state | [12][13] | |
 Croatia | Member state | Member state | [12][13] | |
 Czech Republic | Member state | Member state | [12][13] | |
 Estonia | Member state | Member state | [12][13] | |
 Hungary | Member state | Member state | [12][13] | |
 Kosovo | Applicant | — | Partially recognized state | |
 Latvia | Member state | Member state | [12][13] | |
 Lithuania | Member state | Member state | [12][13] | |
 Montenegro | Candidate negotiating | Member state | ||
 North Macedonia | Candidate negotiating | Member state | [12][13] | |
 Poland | Member state | Member state | [12][13] | |
 Romania | Member state | Member state | [12][13] | |
 Serbia | Candidate negotiating | Individual Partnership Action Plan | ||
 Slovakia | Member state | Member state | [12][13] | |
 Slovenia | Member state | Member state | [12][13] | |
 Abkhazia | — | — | Partially recognized state[14] | |
 Armenia | — | Individual Partnership Action Plan | Member state ofCIS andCSTO | |
 Azerbaijan | — | Individual Partnership Action Plan | Member state of CIS | |
 Belarus | — | — | Member state of CIS and CSTO | |
 Georgia | Candidate | Intensified Dialogue | ||
 Moldova | Candidate negotiating | Individual Partnership Action Plan | Member state of CIS | |
 Russia | — | — | Member state of CIS and CSTO | |
 South Ossetia | — | — | Partially recognized state[15] | |
 Transnistria | — | — | Partially recognized state[16] | |
 Ukraine | Candidate negotiating | Intensified Dialogue | ||
According to theOrganisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, "Central and Eastern European Countries (CEECs) is an OECD term for the group of countries comprising Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, the Slovak Republic, Slovenia, and the three Baltic States: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania."[13]
The termCentral and Eastern Europe (abbreviatedCEE) has displaced the alternative termEast-Central Europe in the context oftransition countries, mainly because the abbreviationECE is ambiguous: it commonly stands forEconomic Commission for Europe, rather thanEast-Central Europe.[17]
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
