23 cities vie to host two London-based EU agencies

Nineteen cities have bid to host the European Medicines Agency (EMA) while eight have thrown their hats into the ring for the European Banking Authority (EBA), the European Council said in a statement. “The two agencies will need to be relocated in the context of the UK’s withdrawal from the EU. The future locations need to be decided by common agreement of the EU27 member states,” the council statement said. 

The 27 remaining EU countries excluding Britain are due to decide on the locations in November after the European Commission, the executive arm of the bloc, assesses the different bids. “We will now proceed in assessing all offers in an objective manner,” European Commission spokeswoman Mina Andreeva told reporters.

The deadline for applications to host the cities after Britain leaves the EU in March 2019 was Monday at midnight. The cities seen as leading the race for the EMA are Amsterdam, Barcelona and Lille in France, with Athens, Bonn, Bratislava, Brussels, Bucharest, Copenhagen, Dublin, Helsinki, Milan, Porto, Sofia, Stockholm, Malta, Vienna, Warsaw and Zagreb also in contention.

German financial hub of Frankfurt is the frontrunner for the EBA, followed by Paris and Luxembourg and Prague, while Brussels, Dublin, Vienna and Warsaw have also bid. Competition is likely to be intense with the medicines agency employing 900 people and banking agency having 159 staff. Choice of new host cities will be made via complicated points system that officials have compared to Eurovision song contest. 

The European Commission will evaluate the bids in September, considering criteria such as accessibility for current employees, work opportunities for their spouses and schools for their children.