The 27 European affairs ministers, meeting in Luxembourg without their UK counterpart on Tuesday 10 June, discussed the fate of the European agencies to be relocated elsewhere in the EU following Brexit. The European Medicines Agency and the European Banking Authority are currently based in London.
The heads of state and/or government will be called upon, on Thursday 22 June, to adopt a procedure to decide between the applicant cities and voting will take place in the autumn. On Tuesday, ministers approved the broad thrust of the method of decision-making, between the criteria to be applied (which include proximity to schools for the children of the officials employed by the agencies, office space and means of integrating into the labour market of the county concerned) and the method of voting.
Maltese minister Elena Dalli, who chaired the meeting, said that six criteria had been agreed and that the aim was to ensure a swift, smooth relocation of these two agencies and also to maintain the unity of the 27 members on this issue.
Countries wishing to host the agencies are many: France has proposed Lille for the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Stockholm and Barcelona have all been proposed by their respective countries. Frankfurt, Paris and Prague are in the running for the European Banking Authority (EBA). Vienna, Dublin and Warsaw have been put forward by their countries as candidates for the two agencies.
The proposed procedure will go through a number of stages in the course of which the member states will award points to the candidates of their choice. In the first round, each member state will be able to register a first, second and third choice: a positional voting system that is also used in the Eurovision Song Contest, AFP notes. If a country is the first choice of 14 or more member states – a majority – then it will be the winner. Otherwise all the first, second and third votes will be counted: first choice votes will receive three points, second choice two points and third choice one point. The top three will go forward to the second round.
In the event of more than three offers having the largest number of points, all those with the same points total will go into the second round of voting, according to a text quoted by AFP. In the second round, member states will have only one point to award. Here again, any country receiving 14 or more votes will be declared the winner; otherwise a third round will be needed. If it proves impossible to separate the countries after the third round, the winner will be decided by drawing lots.
The member states will be sovereign in their decisions, meaning that a country could still vote for an offer which, in the view of the Commission, does not meet the criteria. Member states have until the end of July to submit their candidacies.
For the rest, Michel Barnier briefed ministers on the first day of negotiations with David Davis of the UK on 19 June (see EUROPE 11811). He said that Monday had been “important and useful” and that the goal of the EU was to make progress on the terms of the divorce between now and October. This includes the thorny issue of Northern Ireland, which will not be discussed by a working group but will form part of a more political dialogue. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)