Eastern European Group

File:Eastern European Group 2012.png

The Eastern European Group in 2012, with the years each member spent in the United Nations Security Council, including former members represented as outlines

A map showing from which countries from the Eastern European Group has there been elected a President of the United Nations General Assembly as of September 2012.

The Eastern European Group (EEG), also known as Countries with Economies in Transition (CEIT), is one of the five unofficial Regional Groups in the United Nations that act as voting blocs and negotiation forums. Regional voting blocs were formed in 1961 to encourage voting to various UN bodies from regional groups. The group consists of countries in Eastern Europe and the Caucasus, which form the area of the former Eastern Bloc. Europe is divided between the EEG and the Western European and Others Group. The group currently has 23 members.

History

Prior to the creation of the Regional Groups in 1966, the UNSC had an Eastern European and Asian Seat, that was taken between 1946 and 1966 by countries from Eastern Europe (including Greece and Turkey, members of the modern Western European and Others Group (WEOG)) and Asia (members of the modern Asia-Pacific Group). The Eastern European Group exists since 1966. It has changed significantly due to the dissolution of some of its members. These dissolutions are those of the Soviet Union (1991), Yugoslavia (1991-2006), and Czechoslovakia (1993). Also, through the German reunification, the Eastern European Group lost East Germany as its member. All the new countries created in Europe stayed in the bloc, and the Central Asian post-Soviet states joined the Asia-Pacific Group.

Members

• Albania
• Armenia
• Azerbaijan
• Belarus
• Bosnia and Herzegovina
• Bulgaria
• Croatia
• Czech Republic

• Estonia
• Georgia
• Hungary
• Latvia
• Lithuania
• Republic of Macedonia
• Moldova

• Montenegro
• Poland
• Romania
• Russian Federation
• Serbia
• Slovakia
• Slovenia
• Ukraine

Historical members

• Byelorussian SSR
• Czechoslovakia
• Federal Republic of Yugoslavia / Serbia and Montenegro
• German Democratic Republic
• Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
• Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
• Ukrainian SSR

Representation

The Eastern European Group has two seats in the United Nations Security Council (UNSC); the permanent seat of Russia, and one elected seat, currently held by Lithuania. The Group further has 6 seats on the United Nations Economic and Social Council and 6 seats on the United Nations Human Rights Council. It is also eligible for having its nationals elected as President of the United Nations General Assembly in years ending with 2 and 7; most recently, Vuk Jeremić of Serbia was elected to this position in June 2012 and was the office holder of the Sixty-seventh session.

Timeline of membership

As the Eastern European Group changed significantly over time, the number of its members had also changed.

Years	Number of members	Notes
1966-1973	10	The Eastern Bloc; Ukraine (as Ukrainian SSR) and Belarus (as Byelorussian SSR) were members on their own right (see here)
1973-1990	11	with the German Democratic Republic
1990	10	German reunification
1991	13	Independence of the Baltic states
1992	20	Dissolution of the Soviet Union, Breakup of Yugoslavia
1993-2006	22	Dissolution of Czechoslovakia, Independence of the Republic of Macedonia
2006–present	23	Independent Montenegro

References

• The United Nations Security Council by The Green Papers Worldwide