Bucharest competes among 18 cities to host the European Medicine Agency

Bucharest competes among 18 cities to host the European Medicine Agency (EMA) after Brexit.

Overall, a number of 23 cities submitted the candidacy to host the EMA and the European Banking Authority (EBA). EMA has approximately 900 employees and Bucharest will compete with Amsterdam, Bonn, Brussels, Copenhagen, Dublin, Helsinki, Milan, Stockholm, Vienna, Warsaw, Bratislava, Sofia and Zagreb.

The European Medicine Agency, currently with the headquarter in London, is a decentralized organization of EU, with the main responsibility of protection and promotion of public healthcare, through the evaluation and surveillance of drugs. Romania’s Government said on July 21 that it finished the candidature file for the EMA’s relocation from London to Bucharest.

In the case of the EBA, the cities that are running to host its HQ are Brussels, Dublin, Frankfurt, Paris, Prague, Luxembourg, Vienna and Warsaw. None of the EU member states will host both agencies and at the end of several rounds only two candidates will remain, that will need the support of the majority of the member states to win.

Among the criteria for which the 23 cities will be evaluated are the guarantees that the agencies will function as soon as Brexit takes place, accessibility, schools for the employees’ children of the two agencies, the access to labor market and medical assistance for the employees’ families, as well as the geographic spread of the agencies. The last criteria is an advantage for Bulgaria, Romania, Croatia, Cyprus and Slovakia, which currently don’t host any European agency.