Constituent countries is a phrase used, often by official institutions, in contexts in which a number of countries make up a larger entity or grouping, concerning these countries; thus the
OECD has used the phrase in reference to the parts of former
Yugoslavia; the
Soviet Union referring to the
Soviet republics; and
European institutions such as the
Council of Europe frequently used the expression in reference to the
European Union countries. It is not a
term of art and has no defined legal meaning; 'constituent' is simply an adjective, and the phrase has no clear meaning outside a context from which the entity or grouping of which the countries in question are constituents or components can be understood.
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