The term POLE, E.G. can be broken down into three crossword solutions: VALS (4 letters), SLAV (4 letters), and EUROPEAN (8 letters). VALS is an acronym for the Visegrad Group, which is a political alliance between four Central EUROPEAN countries: Poland, Slovakia, Czech Republic, and Hungary. SLAV is an acronym for Slavic people, who are an ethnic group native to Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. Finally, EUROPEAN is a reference to the fact that Poles are citizens of a EUROPEAN country.