Ministers for European affairs will decide on Monday 20 November on the new locations for the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and the European Banking Authority (EBA), both of which will have to leave their current bases in the United Kingdom because of Brexit.
The decisions should be known late on Monday. Ministers will vote in a secret ballot firstly on the Medicines Agency and then on the Banking Authority, the EMA requiring a little more time in view of the number of candidate cities.
Voting will begin at around 4.30pm, a source said on Friday. A total of 19 locations have declared themselves candidates to host the EMA (Amsterdam, Athens, Barcelona, Bonn, Bratislava, Brussels, Bucharest, Copenhagen, Dublin, Helsinki, Lille, Malta, Milan, Porto, Sofia, Stockholm, Vienne, Warsaw and Zagreb) and 8 for the EBA (Brussels, Dublin, Frankfurt, Luxembourg, Paris, Prague, Vienne, Warsaw). The secret ballot voting procedure was agreed by the 27 member states at their summit in June. Each member state will have six points in the first round of voting, three for their preferred choice (which may be their candidate city), two for their second preference and one for their third preference. Member states will not be allowed to cast their six points for their own candidate city. If any one candidate city is awarded the three points by 14 or more states, it will be deemed to have been selected. If not, the cities with the highest number of points will go forward to a second round of voting.
In the second round, each member state will have one point to be awarded to its preferred candidate. If any city receives more than 14 points, it will be deemed to have been selected.
If not, a third round will take place opposing the two (or more in the event of a tied vote) cities receiving the highest number of points. Once again, each member state will have one point. In the event of a tie, the Presidency will draw lots to determine the successful city, the Presidency says in an explanatory note.
The selection of the new host cities for these two agencies will come after a meeting of the General Affairs – Article 50 Council at which ministers will be updated by Michel Barnier on the state of Brexit negotiations. Ministers do not expect any decisive developments on Monday, a European source has already indicated. The general feeling remains that, at this stage, London has not provided the necessary information or made sufficient progress for the second phase of talks to be opened. This Friday 17 November, European Council President Donald Tusk and UK Prime Minister Theresa May will discuss Brexit on the sidelines of the social summit in Gothenburg.
On Monday morning, the day will begin with a normal General Affairs Council at which ministers will discuss the forthcoming December European Council. They will also approve the entry-exit system for travellers entering or leaving the Schengen area or the EU. Over lunch, they will discuss the post-2020 multi-annual financial framework with Commissioner Oettinger. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)