The Office for the Protection of Competition will decide on the library no earlier than in April

Brno - The competition for the design of the new building of the Prague National Library is likely to be decided by the antitrust office only in April. The Office for the Protection of Competition (ÚOHS) continues to investigate the documentation for the competition and is also collaborating with the European Commission. This is a complicated matter and the office is also obtaining expert opinions in the field of international law, Jindřiška Koblihová, vice-chairwoman of ÚOHS, informed CTK today. The National Library team is waiting for the ÚOHS's statement, which will determine whether the controversial building in Letná, Prague, will be constructed.
    Jan Kaplický, while preparing the design for the octopus-shaped building, likely had no idea who would be weighing in on his work. Aside from many of his colleagues, politicians are also expressing their opinions; the Supreme Audit Office is dealing with the library design competition, as are the antitrust officials for the third time now. In the previous two cases, the administrative proceedings were stopped on the grounds that this type of architectural competition is not within their jurisdiction to evaluate.
    At the end of February, however, a prompt came again from the Ministry of Culture. This time, it does not concern the competition itself, in which Kaplický's studio Future Systems won. The ministry wants to know if a public contract for the construction of the library can be awarded based on the results of this competition. Public contracts fall within the competencies of ÚOHS. However, it is currently impossible to estimate how the office will respond to the ministry's prompt.
    Meanwhile, people are signing a petition in support of the new building. Thousands of signatures are already on the sheets. People, including many well-known personalities, have also signed another petition that agrees with the library costing several billion crowns, but not in Letná.