Central and Eastern Europe
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Central and Eastern Europe, abbreviated CEE, is a generic term for the group of countries in Central Europe, Southeast Europe, Northern Europe, and Eastern Europe, usually meaning former communist states in Europe. It is in use after the collapse of the Iron Curtain in 1989–90. In scholarly literature the abbreviations CEE or CEEC are often used for this concept.[1][2][3]
Definitions
The term CEE includes all the Eastern bloc 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 three Baltic states – Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania – that chose not to join the CIS with the other 12 former republics of the USSR. The transition countries in Europe are thus classified today into two political-economic entities: CEE and CIS. The CEE countries are further subdivided by their accession status to the European Union (EU): the eight first-wave accession countries that joined the EU on 1 May 2004 (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, and Slovenia), the two second-wave accession countries that joined on 1 January 2007 (Romania and Bulgaria) and the third-wave accession country that joined on 1 July 2013 (Croatia). According to the World Bank, "the transition is over" for the 10 countries that joined the EU in 2004 and 2007.[4] It can be also understood as all countries of the Eastern Bloc.[5]
CEE includes the following former socialist countries, which extend east from the border of Germany and south from the Baltic Sea to the border with Greece:
Estonia - member of the European Union and NATO
Latvia - member of the European Union and NATO
Lithuania - member of the European Union and NATO
Germany (Eastern part) - member of the European Union and NATO
Czech Republic - member of the European Union and NATO
Slovakia - member of the European Union and NATO
Hungary - member of the European Union and NATO
Poland - member of the European Union and NATO
Romania - member of the European Union and NATO
Bulgaria - member of the European Union and NATO
Slovenia - member of the European Union and NATO
Croatia - member of the European Union and NATO
Albania - member of NATO
Bosnia-Herzegovina
Kosovo[6] (considered by some as a part of Serbia)
Macedonia
Montenegro - formal invitation to join NATO
Serbia
Other former Communist countries in Europe, which are members and associates of the CIS are sometimes included in CEE:[7][8][9][10]
In addition:
Austria, member of the European Union, was not a communist country during the Cold War, but it is sometimes included in CEE [11]
The definition of the region varies, depending on the source.[12][13][14]
The term Central and Eastern Europe (with its abbreviation CEE) has displaced the alternative term East-Central Europe in the context of transition countries, mainly because the abbreviation ECE is ambiguous: it commonly stands for Economic Commission for Europe rather than East-Central Europe.[15]
See also
- Central Europe
- Central and Eastern European Online Library
- East-Central Europe
- Eastern Europe
- Regions of Europe
- Baltic states
- Visegrád Group
References
- ^ Inotai, András (Autumn 2009). "BUDAPEST—Ghost of Second-Class Status Haunts Central and Eastern Europe". Europe's World.
- ^ Z. Lerman, C. Csaki, and G. Feder, Agriculture in Transition: Land Policies and Evolving Farm Structures in Post-Soviet Countries, Lexington Books, Lanham, MD (2004), see, e.g., Table 1.1, p. 4.
- ^ J. Swinnen, ed., Political Economy of Agrarian Reform in Central and Eastern Europe, Ashgate, Aldershot (1997).
- ^ Unleashing Prosperity: Productivity Growth in Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union, World Bank, Washington (2008), p. 42
- ^ "Central and Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia". OECD.
- ^ Template:Kosovo-note
- ^ http://stats.oecd.org/glossary/detail.asp?ID=303
- ^ http://www.databasece.com/en/data
- ^ http://www.cushmanwakefield.com/en/research-and-insight/2013/changing-world-of-trade/
- ^ http://www.foodnavigator.com/Financial-Industry/Nestle-performance-in-Europe-surprises-analysts
- ^ http://www.rolandberger.at/media/pdf/Roland_Berger_Studie_CEE_in_2020_20101201.pdf
- ^ http://www.weastra.com/cee-countries/
- ^ http://stats.oecd.org/glossary/detail.asp?ID=303
- ^ http://www.rolandberger.at/media/pdf/Roland_Berger_Studie_CEE_in_2020_20101201.pdf
- ^ ECE – United Nations Economic Commission for Europe.