The U.S. Embassy in Slovakia is failing to adhere to terms and conditions agreed in an extension to its rental contract on city land outside the embassy's building on Hviezdoslav Square in downtown Bratislava, Old Town councillor Martin Borguľa told a press conference outside the embassy building on Tuesday.
He said that three months after the rental was extended by 18 months, the embassy still hasn't undertaken measures to which it has committed itself. According to Borguľa, the embassy was required to remove the parking spots and storage areas from the building's immediate vicinity. “In addition, the U.S. vowed to add some greenery in the area between the building and the security fence and to erect a less unsightly fence”, said Borguľa. “The embassy's cars continue to park on the square, no substantial green area has been added and the unpleasant character of the fence remains. I'm afraid those were empty promises ahead of the vote on the rental extension, and the U.S. embassy is leading us down the garden path”, said Borguľa. He went on to promise to be engaged in the issue and cited a revocation of the City Council's respective resolution as a possible course of action unless the embassy makes good on its promises.
The embassy said that it's aware of the conditions agreed and vows to do its utmost to comply with them. “The U.S. Embassy announced this spring that it would undertake several new measures regarding its facilities, and we expect that we will have made visible progress on all of them by this fall”, said Janelle Luna of the embassy. “Building a new embassy facility in Bratislava is a process that can take five to six years. In the coming months, a team will come to Bratislava to evaluate potential locations for a new embassy building. In the meantime, we will continue to upgrade and improve the building we have now. We recently invested more than €250,000 in repairing the façade and updating the windows of the Embassy, after which we removed the storage container that was in front of the embassy. Now that this project has been completed, we will add new greenery and other elements to improve the appearance of the fence and surrounding area”, said Luna.
“We are also finalising an agreement for a parking solution that will allow us to remove the vehicles that are in front of the Embassy. All of these activities have been discussed in advance, and in partnership, with the city authorities as part of our ongoing cooperation with the city of Bratislava. As Ambassador (Theodore) Sedgwick told members of the city Parliament on April 29, we would welcome the opportunity to host any of them here to explain our plans in more detail”, Luna added.
The City of Bratislava rented the land around the embassy in 2005 for a period of ten years. The contract was due to expire in February 2015, hence the embassy requested an extension to the contract up until 2045. This wasn't embraced by Old Town mayor Tatiana Rosová and a number of other councillors, who claimed that the security fence stops the promenade from meeting its purpose and makes Paulínyho Street impassable. The embassy then requested an extension of only 18 months in April and the embassy announced a month later that it would vacate the place altogether due to security reasons. City Council agreed on May 22 with extending the rental contract by 18 months; that is by August 15, 2016, provided that the embassy would remove the parking places and storage areas. The city still can extend the rental period as long as the embassy demonstrates that it is beginning to move to a different location or construct a new building. The building was at first home to the U.S. Consulate General from 1991 before housing the embassy since 1993 when Slovakia gained independence.
