The EU’s decision on where to relocate two prized agencies that will have to leave the U.K. after Brexit has been pushed back a month to November to give leaders time to discuss the fraught issue, according to a document obtained by POLITICO.
That gives EU leaders time to discuss the relocation of the European Banking Authority and European Medicines Agency, currently housed in London, at a summit in October.
The final decision will be taken by a vote “in the margins of the General Affairs Council in November,” according to the latest version of the criteria for the relocation of the agencies which circulated among officials at an EU summit in Brussels on Thursday — and subsequently endorsed by EU leaders.
The previous version did not give EU leaders a chance to weigh in on the debate, a sign of how politically charged the discussion has become.
Candidates from across the EU are in the race to become the new homes for the EBA and EMA, with Eastern European and Balkan countries insisting it is their turn to host an agency.
France and Germany are bidding for both agencies, although the EU document says that one country cannot host both agencies.
In a 23-page document setting out the requirements for hosting the EU agencies, dated June 22, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and European Council President Donald Tusk modified the decision-making process in a way that gives candidate countries with good infrastructure — a suitable building, a well-functioning national medicines agency and a good airport — a better chance.
The new decision-making process could count against the likes of Bulgaria, Romania, Croatia, Cyprus and Slovakia, which currently host no EU agencies but have all expressed an interest.
The final version of the document also makes it clear that the relocation of the EBA and EMA because of Brexit is an exceptional circumstance “and does not constitute a precedent for location of agencies in the future.”