Gelnhausen, Germany ? Some think the center of Europe is in Brussels. Others, more financially inclined, say London.

But according to meticulous calculations by French experts, geographically speaking, the European Union’s center has shifted – with Romania and Bulgaria joining the bloc this week – to a wintry wheat field outside a small town in Germany.

Is there money in it for the townsfolk of Gelnhausen? They’re determined to find out.

“I never thought this would happen,” marveled Eckhard Paul, a 47-year-old truck driver whose family owns the land – leased to a farmer – where the would-be center lies.

In joining the EU on Monday, Romania and Bulgaria – former communist nations on the southeast fringe of Europe – moved the EU’s geographic center 110 miles east, says the French National Geographic Institute.

City officials in Gelnhausen happily erected three white flagpoles to mark the new center, locating them some 30 yards from the exact spot so as not to trample on crops.

City official Michael Schwaab said the town, population 23,000, hopes to add a sandstone monument and benches at the site to help market the distinction.

On a rainy January afternoon, the town didn’t seem to be in the center of anything, pretty and sleepy with its ancient church steeples, half-timbered houses and quiet cobblestone streets.

“We could really benefit from some more tourists,” said Alexandra Kehr, owner of the Schelm von Bergen hotel in Gelnhausen’s old town.

As ever, there’s a lack of outright consensus on where Europe’s center lies.

Depending on the method used, and what countries and islands are included as “Europe” – Russia makes a big difference – there are other claimants to the title.

Eckhard Paul owns the property near Gelnhausen, Germany, that is said to be the geographic center of the newly enlarged European Union. Romania and Bulgaria joined Monday.

One of them is a spot in Lithuania where the authorities have put up a large white granite column with a crown of golden stars and a visitor center. The western Ukrainian town of Rakhiv also lays claim, with a monument dating to the 1880s, and the German town of Neualbenreuth attracts tourists to a liberally defined “Midpoint of Europe” marker on the nearby German-Czech border.

The French institute’s calculation takes into account far-flung European territories such as Britain’s Falkland Islands and France’s Reunion in the Indian Ocean.

Whatever the methodology, the center could have landed inconveniently – in the middle of a body of water like the Adriatic, or even in a non-EU territory like Switzerland, which lies only a few hundred miles due south.

But the institute’s Christophe Grateau is quite clear: the center of Europe lands precisely at 9 degrees 9 minutes 0 seconds west longitude and 50 degrees 10 minutes 21 seconds north latitude.

Edgar Donner, who lives nearby, said he might “stand out there with a hat and collect money” from tourists.

Horst Rasbach, the mayor of Kleinmaischeid – a German town that was the previous “center” – said his town did gain visitors during its brief reign, but he couldn’t say exactly how many.

Kleinmaischeid – which held the title only since May 1, 2004, when the EU expanded from 15 to 25 countries – put up a 15-foot-high sculpture of calipers marking the spot on a mosaic map of Europe.

Gelnhausen may enjoy more longevity. EU public opinion opposes further expansions, and candidates such as Turkey – whose bulk would yank the midpoint considerably farther east – may have to wait years.

“It’s kind of silly, the whole thing,” Donner said. “But we’re famous, I suppose.”