Grouping of Countries and Regions, Baltic States, Balkans, Alpine etc

The Following list illustrates the grouping of Countries and Regions of the World. Some groupings are official and have their official headquarters while others are coinages by some economist to capture the investment fads of times. Some grouping of countries are based on geographically proximity while some groupings are done because of common cultural and social factors. The best example of geographic groupings are Some grouping of countries are also because of common economic interest.

Grouping of Countries and Regions : Alpine Countries

The countries which have Alps as prominent part of their geography are called Alpine Countries. Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Slovenia, Monaco, Germany, France and Italy are the considered as Alpine Countries. If population of Alps trees are considered then share of Austria and Switzerland is maximum as Alps are occupied in more than 65.6 % on Austria’s area and 65 % of Switzerland’s area. The Alps covered area of other remaining 6 countries are comparatively very small.

 Apennine or Italian Countries

It is located in the south of Europe.  The Italian peninsula is also known as Apennine or Italian Countries. It contains Italy, San Marino and Vetican City.

Balkan States

This group is also called as Balkan Peninsula or just Balkans. It is located eastermost to all of three European peninsulas. This groups comprises Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia and Slovenia. However there is not universal agreement on the region’s members. Some define the region in form of shared culture and shared historical terms while some others by geographic proximity.

Baltic States

This group is also termed as Baltic Nations, Baltic Countries, Baltic Region or just “Baltics“. This groups comprises of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. This groups is located in northern Europe along the Baltic Sea. Although grouped as one unit, these countries do not have shared linguistic, culture or historic patterns. For example Latvia and Lithuania belongs to Indo-European language family while Estonia belongs to a different Uralic language family.

Benelux Countries (Low Countries)

It is a group of three central European countries which are – Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg. The term Benelux is coined by taking starting few letters of each of the three countries – Be from Belgium, Ne from Netherlands and Lux from Luxembourg. These countries are situated on the deltas of rivers flowing to North sea or English channel. This area which is reclaimed from the sea is either equal to sea level or comparatively lower than sea level. This is reason why these countries are also called as Low Countries.

British Isles

This group belongs to a number of islands which are located off the north-western main land Europe including the islands of Great Britain and Ireland. This contains Republic of Ireland and United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (consists of sovereign countries – England, Scotland, Wales and northern Ireland). British isles also includes 3 dependencies of British Crown – Isle of Man, Bailwick of Jersey and Bailwick of Guernsey.

BRICS

This is a group of Emerging Economies of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. Earlier this group was called as BRIC, but after inclusion of South Africa in 2010 it was coined as BRICS. The term BRIC was proposed by Jim O’Neil from Goldman Sachs.

Caucasus Countries

 

Caucasus region is defined as the region lying between Black Sea and Caspian Sea characterized by Caucasus Mountains. The countries which correspond to this region are – Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iran, Russia and Turkey. This region can be classified in two regions – North Caucasus and South Caucasus. Northern part has mostly the Russia while southern part represents sovereign countries of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iran and Turkey.

CEFTA Countries

CEFTA stands for Central European Free Trade Agreement. It is a trade agreement between non-European Union Countries. The members of this grouping of countries are – Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Serbia and Kosovo.

Central European Initiative

It is a forum for regional co-operation. Its member countries are – Albania, Austria, Belarus, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Italy, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia and Ukraine.

Centrope

It is a project to create multinational region in Central Europe comprising four European Countries – Slovakia, Austria, Hungary and Czech Republic.

Channel Islands

Channel Islands are located in English Channel. These are the dependencies of British Crown. These include Bailwick of Jersey and Bailwick of Guernsey. Both of them are ruled independently by rule of law, have their own capitals and held elections.

CIVETS Countries

This term is used to represent the growing markets of Columbia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Egypt, Turkey and South Africa. These countries have a diverse economy and young have a young growing population which is suitable for the condition of emerging markets.

Danubian Countries

The states that lie along the basin of river Danube of Europe are called Danubian Countries. Presence of such large number of countries in its basin makes it world’s most international river basin. These countries are – Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Germany, Hungary, Moldova, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia and Ukraine.

Fenno-Scandia

It is the region comprising of Scandinavian Peninsula, Finland, Karelia and Kola Peninsula. In general the countries Norway, Sweden, Finland and part of Russia are called Fenno-Scandian countries.

Iberian Peninsula

This group is also called Iberia. It is located on south west part of Europe. Iberian countries include Spain, Portugal, Andorra, France and Gibraltar which is overseas territory of UK.

Mediterranean Countries

The countries which are located on the coast of Mediterranean sea are called Mediterranean countries. These include – Portugal, Spain, France, Monaco, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Montenegro, Albania, Greece, Turkey, Cyprus, Malta and British territory of Gibraltar.

MINT

MINT is an economic co-operation between the countries of Malaysia, Indonesia, Nigeria and Turkey.

MIST

This is an economic co-operation between Mexico, Indonesia, South Korea and Turkey. The economies of MIST countries have made significant gains reportedly and doubled in last decade irrespective of slowdown in major world economies.

Nordic Countries

It is mainly a geographic and cultural union of North European Countries. It consists of 5 countries of Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark and Iceland. It also comprises of semi-autonomous territories of Aland, Faroe and Greenland islands.

PIGS

It represents the economies of 4 European Union members – Portugal, Ireland, Greece and Spain. The original countries used to represent by PIGS acronym were Italy in place of Ireland. These economies are collectively called PIGS as a derogatory term as they are facing the debt crisis. In year 2010 when the debt of Ireland increased exorbitantly then the term which originally used I for Italy was replaced with Ireland. Some times the term PIIGS is also used to include Italy and Ireland together. In some instances the term PIIGGS is also used to include Great Britain in this list.

PINE Countries

This is an economic collaboration which serves as emerging markets between Philippines, Indonesia, Nigeria and Ethiopia.

Scandinavian Countries

This is north European group of three countries which are connected by means of similar geographic as well as common cultural and historic factors. These countries are – Sweden, Norway and Denmark. This is to emphasis that Scandinavian Peninsula is a purely geographic term which includes only Norway and Sweden and doesn’t include Denmark.  Term “Scandinavian” is coined by considering the cultural aspects which includes Denmark also as a member.

Scandinavian Peninsula Countries

This peninsula is located in northern Europe and comprises of Norway, Sweden and northern Finland.

Schengen Area

A borderless zone created by the Schengen agreement is called Schengen area. This is a group of 26 countries which have removed the requirement of Passports for travelling from one country to other. These countries have common visa policy and generally work as one country unit for international travel. 22 out of 28 European Union countries are the members of Schengen area. Only Ireland and United Kingdom are the two members of European Union which have opt-outs from this group. The remaining 4  i.e. Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus and Romania and intended to join the Schengen area soon. The list of these countries are – Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden. Norway, Iceland and Switzerland which by separate agreements have become the members by fulfilling the Schengen requirements.