The headquarters of the space agency will not be in Palmovka; the government is looking for a new location

Prague - The headquarters of the European Union Agency for the Space Programme (EUSPA) will not be located in the Nová Palmovka area, television Nova reported this evening. According to outgoing Minister of Transport Martin Kupka (ODS), the government is looking for another location for the agency. The reason is the long-standing complications faced by Prague in selecting a company to complete the construction of Nová Palmovka. According to the mayor's deputy Petr Hlaváček (STAN), who is responsible for the project, Prague still plans to build the headquarters in the specified location.

"We must respond to the complications faced by the capital city of Prague in the public tender for the construction of Nová Palmovka. We are moving quickly forward to secure a new location," Minister of Transport Kupka (ODS) said today on Nova. According to the television, the issue was discussed by the government in closed session on Wednesday.

"It is true that in cooperation with EUSPA, suitable alternatives to Nová Palmovka have been examined, which - due to the unique requirements that this agency needs for its headquarters - were primarily caused by delays in the public procurement process, which greatly concerned the ministries of finance and transport," confirmed Michaela Lagronová, spokesperson for the Ministry of Finance.

Construction on the Palmovka building began in 2014, initiated by Prague 8, with plans for it to house a municipal office complemented by a shopping center. Work was interrupted a year later due to various disputes, and the construction has been halted since then. After lengthy negotiations, the building was taken over by the city council from Prague 8 in 2021, which subsequently considered placing the emergency services headquarters in it. Ultimately, an agreement was reached with the state and EUSPA, which is currently located in Holešovice but no longer has sufficient space. Furthermore, the number of its employees in Prague is expected to double to 550 by 2027.

"We have a valid building permit and individual construction firms are appealing against each other. So it’s still one procurement procedure for the contractor," Hlaváček told Nova. According to the television, the procurement selection was canceled by the antimonopoly office on October 15. However, Prague does not have an alternative option. "We are still aiming for that Palmovka location," added Hlaváček.

According to the original memorandum between the government, EUSPA, and Prague from 2023, the European organization was supposed to start moving into its new headquarters by the end of this year.

The agency coordinates the management of EU space programme operations, including satellite and navigation projects such as the European Global Satellite System Galileo or the Copernicus programme for Earth observation. The organization moved from Brussels to Prague in September 2012 under the name European Global Navigation Satellite System Agency (GSA).