The Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (COMECON / Comecon / CMEA / CAME), (Совет экономической взаимопомощи - СЭВ), 1949 - 1991, was an economic organization of communist states and a kind of Eastern Bloc equivalent to—but more geographically inclusive than—the European Economic Community. The military equivalent to the Comecon was the Warsaw Pact, though Comecon's membership was significantly wider. "Germany (East)", Library of Congress Country Study, Appendix B: The Council for Mutual Economic Assistance

The descriptive term Comecon was often applied to all multilateral activities involving members of the organization, rather than being restricted to the direct functions of Comecon and its organs. This usage was sometimes extended as well to bilateral relations among members, because in the system of socialist international economic relations, multilateral accords — typically of a general nature — tended to be implemented through a set of more detailed, bilateral agreements.