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Map of Eastern Europe

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Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe extending from Germany to Asia. The term is highly context-dependent and even volatile, as there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region".A related UN paper adds that "every assessment of spatial identities is essentially a social and cultural construct".

One definition describes Eastern Europe as a cultural (and econo-cultural) entity: the region lying between Central Europe and Western Asia, with main characteristics consisting in Byzantine, Orthodox and minor and limited Ottoman influences. Western advocates of this view include the OECD, the World Bank, and US Vice President Joe Biden.

Another definition, considered outdated by an increasing number of authors,was created during the Cold War and used more or less synonymously with the term Eastern Bloc. A similar definition names the formerly communist European states outside the Soviet Union as Eastern Europe. These are also described as the constituents of Central and Eastern Europe.