Only four have less than 100,000 inhabitants despite the fact that the Government intended to fight against depopulation with this process
MADRID, 30 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The deadline for submitting applications to host the Spanish Space Agency and the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Agency ends this week and, for the time being, eight cities have already applied to host the first of these venues -Teruel, León, Tres Cantos , Ciudad Real, Elche, Seville, Gran Canaria and Tenerife–. Meanwhile, at least eleven municipalities aspire to have the headquarters of Artificial Intelligence -Barcelona, ??La Coruña, Gijón, Zaragoza, Segovia, Salamanca, Guadalajara, Alicante, Palma de Mallorca, Granada and Tenerife–.
The Official State Gazette (BOE) published on October 5 the order that established the criteria to be taken into account for the award of these two venues, giving the autonomous communities and local entities one month to present their candidacies, a term that expires This coming Saturday, November 5.
For the moment, at least these eight administrations have already applied to host the headquarters of the Spanish Space Agency, while another eleven intend to host the other headquarters, that of Artificial Intelligence, even causing disputes between cities in the same community for the support of the regional government, as has been the case in Galicia.
The Government has begun its plan with these two public bodies to relocate newly created headquarters of institutions that depend on the State outside the capital. According to the Executive of Pedro Sánchez, one of the objectives of this measure is to fight against depopulation.
However, of the eighteen territories that have been submitted to this process so far, only four cities have fewer than 100,000 inhabitants –Teruel, Tres Cantos (Madrid), Segovia and Ciudad Real–.
To determine these venues, the Executive of Pedro Sánchez established criteria that have even been appealed to the National High Court by Teruel Exists.
And it is that, in the case of the Spanish Space Agency, the Government will positively assess that the future headquarters is less than an hour from an international airport with connections to Amsterdam, Rome, Frankfurt, Prague and Toulouse, which are the foreign destinations which will most often be visited on business trips by agency staff.
This process has also caused disputes between different municipalities for having the support of their regional government to house these venues.
This is the case, for example, of Galicia. Specifically, La Coruña has finally been the city that has the support of the Xunta de Galicia in the process to designate the headquarters of the Artificial Intelligence Agency, and not Santiago de Compostela or Ourense.
This has also provoked criticism from the president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, of the central government, making Sánchez ugly for saying that the headquarters of the Spanish Space Agency will be located outside Madrid. However, there is a city in Madrid, Tres Cantos, which has submitted its candidacy to host this new headquarters.
In any case, the administrations that finally submit their applications may also additionally offer commitments for the transfer of real estate, assumption of the financial costs of the transfer or creation of the headquarters and support measures for transferred personnel.
After the deadline for submitting applications, this Saturday, November 5, the Advisory Commission chaired by the Minister of Territorial Policy, Isabel Rodríguez, will prepare an opinion, analyzing the possible venues.
Finally, it will be the Council of Ministers who will adopt the final agreement on the location of the headquarters of these new agencies, which will be published in the BOE within a maximum period of six months from the start of the procedure.
