The fast way down
Government offers European Medicines Authority Smart City premises cost-free for 15 years
The government has offered the Smart City premises cost-free for 15 years in its proposal to house the European Medicines Authority. This became known after the EU Commission published its assessment on the offers from 20 different member states.
The Maltese proposal is offering “a bespoke state-of-the art premises”, which can host 1,000 employees and 40,000 visitors per year, and has an office area of at least 30,000 square metres. However, the assessment notes it did not provide information on the availability of a number of offices, work stations, internal meeting rooms.
According to the offer, the building would be available six months prior to the deadline of 1 April 2019, and the government will cover rent, maintenance costs and deposit for the first 15 years of operation, but did not provide specific information on the financial terms for the Agency’s use of the building after that period.
Office furniture, telephone and data services will be provided on a one-off basis.
Malta submitted its bid to host the European Medicines Agency headquarters following an agreement on 22 June, when the Heads of the 27 Member States endorsed the procedure leading up to a decision on the relocation of the European Medicines Agency and the European Banking Authority after the United Kingdom's withdrawal from the European Union.
The countries which have submitted an offer are Austria (Vienna),Belgium (Brussels Greater Area), Bulgaria (Sofia), Croatia (Zagreb), Denmark (Copenhagen), Finland (Helsinki), France (Lille), Germany (Bonn), Greece (Athens), Ireland (Dublin), Italy (Milan), Netherlands (Amsterdam Metropolitan Area), Poland (Warsaw), Portugal (Porto), Romania (Bucharest), Slovakia (Bratislava), Spain (Barcelona), and Sweden (Stockholm).
Presently, the EMA has its headquarters in Canary Wharf, London, and employs 900 people from all over Europe.
It was first to monitor, evaluate, and determine the safety of medical and veterinary products before they are sold in the European Single Market. A total of 20 EU Member States have also launched their bids to be host country of the EMA post-Brexit.
The final vote determining the relocation of the EMA is expected to take place on the 20th November at the EU's General Affairs Council.
The offer also revealed that the Maltese government will also to pay for EMA hiring a conference centre for one year.
Details on the financial terms of this contract were not provided.
It indicated the availability of institutional support to EMA for its relocation (including the establishment of a Relocation Office) and of individualised support to EMA in its operations by the Malta Medicines Authority.
Partners and spouses of EMA employees who have senior management roles in creativity and innovation will be given a 15 % tax rate. The offer promoted the availability of direct flights between Malta and 16 EU capitals, with frequency ranging from 1 to 19 flights per week and a duration ranging from 1h25min to 3h50min.
It also provided the availability of public transportation connections between the proposed location and the airport, with a duration of 20 minutes, but did not provide specific information on the frequency of these connections. The availability of 40,500 hotel beds, ranging from internationally branded hotels to the small family run boutique hotels was also mentioned.
The bilingual education system at all levels, which imposes no fees on all European Citizen, along with the presence of international educational establishments, was also promoted.
Children and spouses of EMA staff to social security and medical care.
On the labour market, the government said that the Maltese economy can provide job opportunities in multilingual communication (in Maltese and English), but did not specify the availability of registered job vacancies.
The offer promoted the possibility for EMA to recruit relevant staff from Malta’s healthcare sector and to the living and working conditions in Malta in relation to EMA ability to maintain staff.
The government advocated the country’s IT systems and security standards saying that it is ranked as a top player in Europe for IT ”[…] it has a number of Tier 3 data servers which can be used by EMA”.
The EU’s assessment noted that is did not provide information on the availability of appropriate IT systems and security standards, except for the availability of Tier 3 data servers.
The bilingual education system at all levels, which imposes no fees on all European Citizen, along with the presence of international educational establishments, was also promoted.