Lady in crowd surrounding East European (7)
I believe the answer is:
peeress
'lady' is the definition.
('peeress' can be a synonym of 'lady')
'crowd surrounding east european' is the wordplay.
'crowd' becomes 'press' (press is a kind of crowd**).
'surrounding' is an insertion indicator.
'east' becomes 'e' ('E' can be a synonym of 'east').
'european' becomes 'e' (abbreviation e.g. EU).
'e'+'e'='ee'
'press' placed around 'ee' is 'PEERESS'.
'in' is the link.
(Other definitions for peeress that I've seen before include "She is married to a duke, earl etc" , "Female House of Lords member" , "Female noble" , "Woman from other place" , "Lady" .)