What is living in Prague like? How can foreigners find housing, where can they send their children to school, how are they going to commute to work? Answers to these and many other questions were given to the employees of the Galileo Supervisory Authority (GSA) and to their family members, who are soon about to move to Prague, at a presentation prepared by the Ministry of Transport in cooperation with the City of Prague and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic. The meeting with the employees of GSA, including the recently elected Executive Director Carlo des Dorides, took place in the Prague House in Brussels on Wednesday, 16 February 2011.

The opening speeches, delivered by the Permanent Representative of the Czech Republic to the EU, Ambassador Milena Vicenová, and the Deputy Minister of Transport Jakub Hodinář, pointed out that the Czech Republic considers the GSA employees to be greatest “treasure” of the agency and that it is therefore prepared to facilitate their transfer to their new domicile in every possible way.

Employees of the agency were, besides all, given a range of practical information on housing in Prague by Jan Borůvka, the Secretary General of the Association of Real Estate Offices of the Czech Republic; on employment opportunities for their family members by Zuzana Zajarošová, the social policy attache from the Permanent Representation of the Czech Republic to the EU; or about possibilities of education for their children by Michaela Dombrovská from the Office of the Government of the Czech Republic. Practical aspects of life in Prague and leisure possibilites were introduced by Martin Dub from the Prague House in Brussels, and David Ringrose from the European Commission's Information Society and Media DG shared his personal experience of a foreigner living in the Czech Republic. The whole event was hosted by the spokesman of the Permanent Representation Radek Honzák, and other experts from the Representation were ready to answer questions.

The Czech Republic was in the running to become the seat of the GSA since 2006. The decision to place the agency permanently in Prague was taken during an intergovernmental conference in December 2010. The agency is temporarily placed in Brussels; the term of its transfer to Prague is now going to become a subject of discussions of the Czech representatives with GSA and the European Commission.

Photo: Diana Černáková