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Comment by Roark66 | Hacker News Reader

The whole region(central and Eastern Europe) has great economic potential especially if you consider many transport links are being finished linking the North with the South through Poland, Czech Republic and beyond(hopefully Ukraine too in future) .

In recent history in the region all important railroads and motorways were always East-West to facilitate quick military transfer while new North-South links are a lot more valuable for the region's economy. If only we manage to keep our tax/business laws stable, have more effective judiciary and work towards common interests instead of being played against eachother by various "powers" we'll have it pretty good.

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The Baltic countries are northern Europe, not eastern.

These things are rather subjective don't you think? Where does the center end and the North start? I guess it depends what you are used to. Similarly with East-Central-West. Whenever people use terms like "Central Europe" they may refer to a geographic center (Poland, Czech Republic, I put the Baltics in the same category because they are in the same region - what do I mean? For example there is a sea between the Baltics and the Nordic countries,however culturally I'm told the Baltics have much more in common with the Nordics), they may refer to the EU, the center being probably around Austria, or I even heard people consider Center to be West part of Germany, because Europe they know ended at an Iron Curtain in Berlin.

I don't think geography is subjective. I suggest you google Northern Europe, or read the wikipedia pages for Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, as they all say "a country located in Northern Europe". In the UN geoscheme, Baltic countries are part of Northern Europe. According to EuroVoc, Baltic countries are part of Northern Europe.

Nordic is very different from Northern.

Northern Europe usually refers to Norway, Sweden, Finland, and sometimes Denmark. But they are further north than most of the other countries people think of as "eastern", that is true.

That heavily depends on who you listen to.

CIA indeed defines Northern Europe as you describe, including Denmark, plus Iceland. [1] However the United Nations has a different definition, which also includes the Baltics, UK, and Ireland. [2]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Europe#CIA_World_Fact...

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Europe#UN_geoscheme_c...

Usually? According to geography (and the wikipedia pages for each baltic country), Baltic countries are also located in Northern Europe.

In the UN geoscheme, Baltic countries are part of Northern Europe. According to EuroVoc, Baltic countries are part of Northern Europe.

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