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28 April 2004
GOLZOW – Two villages in Germany are wrangling for the title, “Heart of the European Union”, after geographers used differing methods to calculate the centre of the new, post-1 May EU.
Golzow, a marshland community of 1,500 in the state of Brandenburg, has the honour, according to Andras Desi, rector of Budapest University, in remarks quoted Wednesday by the German newspaper Maerkische Allgemeine.
His university’s geography department came up with the formula. The village plans to hold a European Festival this summer to demonstrate its new-found status.
The French National Geographical Institute disagrees. It has already picked Kleinmaisched, more than 400 kilometres away in Rhineland Palatinate state, as the centre, and villagers there refuse to give the title up.
DPA
Subject: German news