Medicines agency to relocate from London to Amsterdam

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) is to be relocated from London to Amsterdam after Brexit, it has been announced.

Alongside the European Banking Agency, the EMA is one of two key EU regulators which are to move away from London’s Canary Wharf, where they currently employ around 1,000 staff.

Amsterdam won a battle to host the EMA against a field including Athens, Barcelona, Bonn, Bratislava, Brussels, Bucharest, Dublin, Copenhagen, Helsinki, Lille, Milan, Porto, Sofia, Stockholm, Malta, Vienna, Warsaw and Zagreb.

Ministers from the 27 other EU members voted at a meeting in Brussels on which cities should become the agencies’ new homes.

Announcing the decisions, Estonian deputy EU affairs minister Matti Maasikas said the votes for where to relocate both agencies ended in a tie and had to be decided by the drawing of lots.

Paris was tied with Dublin in the battle for the EBA, while Amsterdam received the same number of votes as Milan for the EMA relocation.

Mr Maasikas said: “It was a tight competition, and we needed to draw a lot on both cases.”

Italian prime minister Paolo Gentiloni denounced the decision to award the EMA to Amsterdam by picking names out of a bowl.

A Government spokesman said the UK would continue to work with both relocated agencies.