With Pavlo Klimkin for the #SCEEUS of the UI on what "#CentralEurope" could mean
Central Europe could be understood to specifically encompass those European nations that: (a) emerged out of the former German, Austrian, Ottoman, and Russian empires (as well, perhaps, Yugoslavia); and (b) were not imperial hegemons.
See: https://sceeus.se/en/publications/towards-a-new-notion-of-central-europe-deliberations-on-european-colonial-experience-and-diverging-geopolitical-outlooks/