19 cities apply for the European Medicines Agency

Brussels - Now it's official: In the selection process for the future headquarters of the European Medicines Agency (EMA), which is moving away from Great Britain, 18 other European cities besides Bonn have applied for the seat of the Medicines Agency. The EU published the list of final candidates today. The Federal Ministry of Health is promoting the establishment of the EMA in Bonn with one and detailed website.

Bonn must therefore face cities such as Amsterdam, Lille, Milan and Bratislava in the selection process. Strasbourg is not on the list. France has not changed Lille as candidate city. This should mean moving the EMA to Strasbourg and at the same time relocating the seat of Parliament permanently to Brussels.

The EMA is based in London. Because of the planned Brexit, she should be relocated to one of the 27 remaining EU countries as soon as possible. The selection decision is to be made in November by secret ballot in the EU Council of Ministers.

Whoever wins the contract can hope for immense additional income. Every year, the EMA organizes hundreds of conferences and events with experts from all over the world.

Most recently, the EMA and the European Banking Authority (), which is also leaving London and looking for new seat - with Frankfurt am Main switching to Germany advertised this - for around 39,000 additional hotel nights per year. In addition, most of the highly qualified employees are likely to move with the agencies. The drug agency EMA recently employed around 900 people.

In the selection process that is now beginning, experts from the EU Commission will first evaluate all applicant locations according to six criteria. These include working conditions, transport links, the number of EU agencies to date and the possibility of quick and easy move.

That both Bonn and Frankfurt am Main emerge as winners in the location competition locked out. One of the procedural rules says that each country can have at most one of the agencies.

The outcome of the vote November is currently considered completely open. Critics have been warning for weeks that there could be nasty surprises for excellently suitable applicant cities like Bonn. The electoral process stipulates that in the first round of voting all 27 EU member states will award three points to their favorites, two points to their number two and one point to their number three.

This could lead to elimination lead from good locations in the first round if all applicant countries give themselves the three points and distribute the others to apparently unqualified competitors in order to weaken the competition.