Bratislava City Council Once Again Turns Down Land Rental for US Embassy
Bratislava, September 28 (TASR) – Bratislava won’t rent to the US Embassy the approximately 1,300 metres squared of land in front of the embassy building, which has been used since 2005 as a security zone enclosed by security fence and containing steel posts, barrier flower containers and retractable car barrier, according to the decision adopted by the Bratislava city council on Thursday.
The city council thus reaffirmed its stance dated from April of this year.
City Hall was seeking to lease the land to the embassy until August 15, 2019 at a cost of €481,000 annually. The embassy had a two-year option on renewing the lease contract and was supposed to pay one euro per square metre per day. However, if the embassy could have produced a valid construction permit for a new building, this would have slashed the sum all the way down to 3 euro cents per square metre per day.
On Wednesday (September 27), US Ambassador to Slovakia Adam Sterling told the councillors that the Embassy stands ready to meet its commitments towards the city as agreed back in 2016. Sterling warned the council that in case it won’t greenlight the rental of land, the financial loss for the city might swell up to a million euros, while property issues would pose an obstacle to the Embassy’s relocation and finances earmarked for the rent would have to be recouped to the US budget.
Sterling claimed that the security fence in front of the US Embassy increases security also for Old Town Centre inhabitants, as it makes the Embassy a less accessible target. Back in February, the Embassy told TASR that its plans to relocate were in progress and it already found a new location in the vicinity of the new Slovak National Theatre.
Bratislava mayor Ivo Nesrovnal declared that Bratislava just lost one million euros it could have acquired from the rental. “The city needs these finances and, for some incomprehensible reason, the councillors rejected them,” he claimed. Nesrovnal pointed out that the fence in front of the Embassy forms part of security measures that fall into the purview of the state and not the capital city. “There’s nothing we [the city] can do about it. This falls under foreign commitments of Slovakia.”
Long-time critic of the fence Martin Borgula perceives the Thursday’s vote as a clear message that Bratislavans don’t want the security fence defacing the historical Hviezdoslavovo Square anymore. “I hope that the Ambassador himself will order the removal of the fence,” he said.
