History of Representation
The European Office of the Pilsen Region in Brussels began its activities on 3 January 2006 as a branch office of the Regional Authority of the Pilsen Region. Its first representative was Karel Lizerot.
To facilitate the start of its operations, colleagues from the European Office of East Midlands (East Midlands also includes the Northamptonshire region, which is a partner region of the Pilsen Region) provided office facilities at Avenue d’Auderghem 22–28, 1040 Brussels.
The office was based there until June 2007, when it moved to its own rented office in the so-called Czech House at Rue du Trône 60, B-1050 Brussels.
The Czech House in Brussels was a project related to the first-ever Czech Presidency of the Council of the EU, which took place in the first half of 2009.
For this purpose, the Permanent Representation of the Czech Republic to the EU needed to increase the number of diplomats and secure the necessary office space for them.
These were found in a building immediately adjacent to the seat of the Permanent Representation at Rue Caroly 15, where its founding authority—the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic—leased the entire office building.
However, the Permanent Representation only needed part of the building for its own purposes, so it offered the remaining space to other Czech offices in Brussels. As a result, several organizations moved under one roof: the offices of Czech Airlines, Czech Railways, CzechTrade/CzechInvest, CzechTourism, the Czech Centre, the Czech Business Representation CEBRE, the Embassy of the Czech Republic in Belgium, and, last but not least, a “regional floor” was established with offices for all Czech regions. Not all regions took advantage of this opportunity, however – the following remained outside:
The Capital City of Prague, which has had facilities in its own building in Brussels at Avenue Palmerston 16 since June 2002;
The Central Bohemian Region, which at that time rented its own building at Avenue d’Auderghem 45, Brussels–Etterbeek;
The South Bohemian Region, which subleased an office from the Central Bohemian Region;
The Liberec Region, which also subleased an office from the Central Bohemian Region;
The Zlin and Olomouc Regions, which were represented by a lobbying agency.
In the Czech House, the offices of the South Moravian Region, Karlovy Vary Region, Hradec Kralove Region, Moravian-Silesian Region, Pardubice Region, Pilsen Region, Usti nad Labem Region, and Vysocina Region were located.
At that time, the representative of the Pilsen Region in Brussels was Mgr. Zbyněk Prokop, who took over the responsibilities from Karel Lizerot on 1 January 2007.
The Czech House project in Brussels, which aimed to provide all Czech offices in Brussels under one roof on favorable terms, was a very good initiative. Unfortunately, it was perhaps too good to survive – the Czech Republic did not complete the purchase of the leased building, and therefore the Czech House project in Brussels came to an end in 2011.
