The Diplomat
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs expects to be able to begin moving its officials to the Plaza del Marqués de Salamanca headquarters around November. That is the idea that was conveyed to the ambassadors during the Conference held in mid-January.
Apparently, Tragsa, the company in charge of rehabilitating the former Ministry headquarters, abandoned in 20024, expects to finish in May, works that, for one reason or another, have been delayed more than expected.
The return to the Plaza del Marqués de Salamanca is desired by most diplomats and other officials of the Ministry, who consider it a much more representative place than the headquarters they currently occupy in Agora Towers, north of the M-30.
Rehabilitation work on the building began in 2016 and, as recently published by Cinco Días, has cost some 84 million euros. Among the latest expenditure 7.2 million, included in the 2021 Budget, to enable the Data Processing Center and the installation of audiovisual media -voice and data- in the new headquarters.
The building, which for several decades was the headquarters of the former National Institute of Industry, is located at number 8, Plaza del Marqués de Salamanca, on a 11,166 m2 plot of land.
In 2004, after the presence of naphthalene was detected in some of the plants, the then Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ana Palacios, decided to move it to Torres Ágora, where the bulk of the Ministry is currently located.
As a result of this move, the Government has had to pay eight million euros a year in rent.
