Part is contextual rather than geographical. People tend to lump countries which used to form Yugoslavia together as the Balkans and view them as somewhat simil

Part is contextual rather than geographical. People tend to lump countries which used to form Yugoslavia together as the Balkans and view them as somewhat similar to Romania from an economic point of view. Meanwhile, Greece which is definitely part of the Balkan Peninsula is lumped with southern countries like Italy, Spain and Portugal because it entered the EU as an early member at roughly the same time despite it bordering the European part of Turkey which most would definitely view as eastern.