GADHEIM, Germany - Now that the European Union includes one less country, its geographical centre has shifted to the southeast — landing in a nondescript field in Bavaria. A red-and-white pole set on a boulder marks the new spot, and the flags of the EU, Germany and the local Veitshoechheim municipality fly on flagpoles next to it. “On the one hand, of course I am proud and happy that we are becoming the new geographical centre of Europe,” Veitshoechheim Mayor Juergen Goetz said. The EU’s geographical centre, as calculated by IGN, has been in Germany ever since the bloc expanded from 15 to 25 members in May 2004 by taking in 10 mostly eastern European countries. Goetz’s solution was to get the new centre point ready “and, if Brexit hadn’t happened, we would have made a monument for the unity of Europe out of this point.”The EU’s geographical centre adds a new potential tourist attraction to the nearby Veitshoechheim palace, once the summer residence of Wuerzburg’s prince-bishops.

Source: thestar February 01, 2020 07:52 UTC