Eduardo González
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has awarded a British company the contract to refurbish the premises to house the chancellery of the Consulate General of Spain in London, for a total of more than 4.5 million euros.
The contract was formalized on October 20 by the Undersecretary of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation, Xavier Martí Martí, and published three days later in the Official State Gazette (BOE).
The contract was awarded on June 27 to the British company Albany Interiors Limited, based in Suffolk, and the value of the selected bid is exactly 4,529,577.97 euros. The project is funded by European Union funds through the Integrated Border and Visa Management Facility.
The Official State Gazette (BOE) does not specify the technical details expressed in the technical documentation of the file, considering that “the nature of the contract affects the security of the Representation” and, therefore, that “personal safety (physical integrity), as well as the security of the property,” could be seriously compromised if these details were known.
The Consulate General of Spain in London provides assistance to more than 135,000 Spanish citizens registered in its consular district, as well as to many others who have not yet registered with the Consulate and to tourists who travel to this district periodically.
The current Consul General of Spain in London is Rosario Bernal. She has held the position since November 2022, when she was appointed by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares. The post was part of the extraordinary competition for filling positions abroad—the “bombito,” in diplomatic jargon—and carried an “asterisk,” meaning that the minister selects the candidates without first consulting the Diplomatic Career Board.