This nondescript field is now the centre of the EU after Brexit

The tiny village of Gadheim is a far cry from the cities of Brussels and Strasbourg but it can now count itself as the centre of the EU.

Geographically, a nondescript field in the Bavarian village of 80 people is now is the central point for the 27-member bloc - with the UK’s departure last night shifting the centre spot south-east.

A red and white pole in a boulder marks the new sport, and the flags of the EU, Germany and the Veitshoechheim municipality fly next to it.

“On the one hand, of course I am proud and happy that we are becoming the new geographical centre of Europe,” said Veitshoechheim Mayor Juergen Goetz.

“On the other hand, of course it’s a sad occasion, because with Britain a country is leaving the EU for the first time.”

The EU’s centre is calculated by France’s national cartographic institute, IGN. It has calculated the centre to be in Germany since the EU expanded from 15 to 25 members in May 2004 by adding mostly eastern European countries.

Gadheim has taken the sport from another place in northern Bavaria, Westerngrund, 35 miles north-west.

Mr Goetz said he first heard of his village’s new status on the local radio, when is broadcast the IGN’s calculations in March 2017.

“At first, I thought it was an April Fool’s joke, an early one,” he said.

“But it turned out very quickly that it was really the case.”

Officials in the area spent years considering what to do about it and debating whether the UK would even leave the EU.

Mr Goetz said his 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”.