‘MITTELEUROPA. I wanted France to be governed from the centre, but I didn’t want Europe to be governed from the centre!’ On 12 February 1976, French cartoonist Jean Effel paints an ironic picture of the lesson in European geopolitics given by French President Valéry Giscard d’Estaing to Federal Chancellor Helmut Schmidt. Paris wants to maintain a balance in Franco-German relations. Although Ostpolitik, Federal Chancellor Schmidt’s policy of normalising relations and opening up towards the East, aims to restore the economic powerhouse that is the Federal Republic of Germany to its rightful place on the international stage, this does not mean that Bonn should become the epicentre of the new ‘Mitteleuropa’.