Onenigheid over geografisch centrum van Europese Unie na uitbreiding (en)

Since enlargement on Saturday (1 May) the geographic centre of the European Union has without doubt moved eastwards and the town of Viroinval in Belgium is no longer at the heart of the European Union.

The German village of Kleinmaischeid of 1,300 inhabitants, 40 kilometres south-east of Bonn, has been named the centre of the new EU by France's National Geographic Institute (IGN).

IGN-engineer Jean-Georges Affholder calculated the new centre of the EU using a mathematical formula which also showed the centre of the European continent is close to Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania and the centre of the euro zone is in Montreuillon, France.

However, the Märkische Allgemeine newspaper has reported that Hungarian experts from the University of Budapest have appointed Golzow, a town of similar size to Kleinmaischeid on the German-Polish border, as the EU's new geographical centre.

Golzow lays almost 600km northeast from Kleinmaischeid.

Three time zones

Both towns now hope to take over from Viroinval, Belgium as the heart of the Union, at least for some time.

With enlargement in 2007, and Romania and Bulgaria expected to join the block, the geographical centre of the European Union will move once again - towards the South-East.

As the enlarged EU now spreads over three time zones some are asking what time it is in the European Union?

The EU Council's legal service appears to have the answer. Last week they said the accession treaties entered into force at midnight in Rome (2200 GMT) because the city is the home of the EU's founding treaty.

The European Commission's legal services said it was at midnight in Luxembourg because that is where the EU's Official Journal is published.

However, Luxembourg, Rome and even Brussels are on the same timeline - which also happens to be the middle of the three time zones - which does not leave much to discuss.