July deadline for bids for medicines and banking bodies ahead of October vote.
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Donald Tusk, European Council president, and Jean-Claude Juncker, European Commission president, on Monday proposed their ground rules for a multi-stage vote on locations by EU ministers. The decision will be taken by October at the latest.
In a paper circulated to member states and seen by the Financial Times, the presidents call on member states to submit bids by July 31 to host the European Medicines Agency and the European Banking Authority, which together employ more than 1,000 staff.
The “objective criteria” stress the “vital” need for “business continuity”, ensuring that the agencies can be up and running by the time of Brexit in locations that can “maintain and attract highly qualified staff”.
A second element of decision-making criteria relates to the “desirability of geographical spread of the agencies’ seats”. This notes past EU promises to base agencies in newer member states — such as Bulgaria, Romania, Croatia, Cyprus and Slovakia — which currently host no such bodies.
900 Number of highly qualified professionals at the European Medicines Agency’s London base Although this principle was endorsed by EU leaders in 2003, the Tusk-Juncker document includes a caveat, suggesting that the agreement was directly related only to newly created agencies. “Although this procedure concerns relocation rather than setting up new agencies, the spirit of that leaders’ agreement should be taken into account,” the paper states. [...]
A third set of “objective criteria” relates to the adequacy of education and staff facilities, including the international school places for close to 648 children of EMA staff. The Commission will assess the applications by the middle of September, which will inform a meeting of EU ministers to be held in October.
The paper outlines a complex voting procedure, which starts with the EMA and knocks out the winner, so ensuring that no one country can host both agencies. The successive voting rounds narrow the field to a final two cities, which must aim for a simple majority. Lots are drawn in the case of a tie. [...]
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