Are we there yet?  Which Cities have applied to host the EU’s Banking Authority and Medicines Agency?

The EU's European Banking Authority ("EBA") and European Medicines Agency ("EMA") are currently both located in the UK. As a result of Brexit, the two bodies will be looking for new homes.

21 EU Member States – representing 23 cities - have applied to house the bodies.

Six countries have bid to host both bodies. Austria (Vienna), Belgium (Brussels), France (Lille and Paris for the EMA and EBA respectively), Germany (Bonn and Frankfurt for the EMA and EBA respectively), Ireland (Dublin) and Poland (Warsaw) have bid for both agencies.

The Czech Republic and Luxembourg have bid for just the EBA.

Bulgaria, Croatia, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Italy, Malta, The Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Spain and Sweden have bid for the EMA.

Six Member States did not bid: Cyprus; Estonia; Hungary; Lithuania; Latvia; and Slovenia.

The bids include briefs, videos and websites.

Ireland's bids are available here for the EBA and here for the EMA. Ireland has prepared an impressive video for the EMA bid.

An infographic showing the various cities which are bidding is available here.

The criteria for selection are: guarantee that the agency will be operational when the UK leaves the EU; accessibility of the location; schools for the children of the staff; access to the labour market and health care for the employees' families; business continuity; and geographical spread.

There is a scheduled publication of the assessment of the bids to be published by the end of September 2017, a discussion at the margins of the General Affairs (Foreign Affairs) Council in October 2017 with a decision being likely to be made, by way of a vote of the Foreign Ministers of the remaining 27 Member States during November.

For more information, contact Dr Vincent J G Power, Partner in EU Law, A&L Goodbody.

Date Published: 2 Aug 2017