Estonian High-Tech Reps Propose Site for EU IT Agency
Tallinn's leading high-tech representatives have submitted a proposal to the government that the EU's new IT agency be built in the capital's Tehnopol science park, a district housed by 150 companies and a university.
Researchers and businesses - including Tallinn University of Technology, the Information Technology Foundation, Skype Technologies - said that Tehnopol would be the best location because it is government-funded and for its placement on campus, next to the Estonian Information Technology College.
"Residing in a forested park bordering [the Tallinn districts of] Mustamäe and Nõmme, Tehnopol offers a wonderful living and working environment to the agency's employees - exciting recreation activities, [...] a planned 250 new apartments, the university's athletics center, a dense network of bicycling and skiing routes [...] It also resides just four kilometers from downtown and the airport," read the proposal.
When creation of the EU's IT agency was announced, Estonia and France fell into dispute over the new location. A working compromise would establish the agency's strategic headquarters in Tallinn, as operations and development would remain in France. The agency will be officially inaugurated in 2012.