Flagging publicity plans

Plans to improve the EU's publicity machine in London are flagging. The European Parliament and European Commission were planning to create a joint London Information Office on Tothill Street, around the corner from the Houses of Parliament. The Parliament currently has an office at Queen Anne's Gate, while the Commission has an office a few streets away at Storey's Gate.
But Parliament's bureau has given a mandate to its Secretary-General Harald Rømer to look for premises other than the chosen Tothill Street option, following “the late request from the owner of the foreseen location not to fly the European flag in front of Parliament's Information Office which was not an acceptable condition to Parliament”. The information office would have taken up about half the Tothill Street building, with the rest of the office space available for other companies to rent.
Richard Colt of the building's owner, Gracemark Investments, said that it had received no official notification of a Parliament decision, after 12 months of negotiations. “We explained that we ourselves have no objection to the flag,” said Colt, “but that if someone else in the building objected we wouldn't be able to fly it. We haven't heard from them since.”
A Parliament official said: “We are still looking for an alternative property.”