Eastern Europe
and
Central Europe
abreviated CEE, is a generic term for countries in Central Europe, Southeast 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.
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 in 1 May 2004 (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, and Slovenia), the two second-wave accession countries that joined in 1 January 2007 (Romania and Bulgaria) and the third-wave accession country that joined in 1 July 2013 (Croatia).
( some photos were taken from the net )
Countries
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