Irish Health Minister Simon Harris is pulling out all the stops to attract the European Medicines Agency (EMA) to Dublin. After two meetings with Commissioner Vytenis Andriukaitis, Harris was in Brussels on 28 April on the eve of the extraordinary summit to present a 30-pages brochure setting out his country’s arguments to health attachés and the press.
On Saturday 29 April, EU heads of state and/or government will be asked to adopt draft guidelines for the negotiations on the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the European Union. European Council President Donald Tusk and Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker are expected also to raise the subject of the criteria and timetable for selecting the city in which the EMA will be based in the future. At the present time, more than 20 member states are thought to have expressed an interest in having the Agency.
In response to a journalist’s question on the difficulty of persuading other states most of which are themselves in the race, Harris said that he had no intention of talking down the offers made by the other cities. Everyone, he said, had to present their arguments. “In my view, the key words are ‘sustainability’ and ‘seamless transition’ and Dublin meets both of these requirements”, he added, stating that the Irish government had already identified two possible sites for the Agency’s offices. He made no comment, however, on the Agency’s having signed a lease until 2039, with no cancellation clause, costing an estimated €16 million per year. He said that that was an issue that would have to be dealt with in the context of the overall Brexit negotiations but should play no part in the decision on where the Agency is to be located.
The EU has, since 2012, had a list of criteria to guide selection of a host city for a new agency. The Irish minister suggested, however, that other factors should be taken into account in a “relocation”. The Council, he said, should be apprised of the situation when it comes to make its decision. “We need a speedy decision, ideally this year”, he stated. The 2012 inter-institutional statement can be read at: https://europa.eu/european-union/sites/europaeu/files/docs/body/joint_statement_and_common_approach_2012_en.pdf (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)