Spain Woos EMA Staff With Offer of Free Spanish Lessons
Executive Summary
Spanish bid for the European Medicines Agency post Brexit gets serious as delegation visits agency HQ in London to promote the “strong credentials” of Barcelona. Free Spanish lessons for staff will be on offer if the Catalan city is declared winner later this year.
Spain’s efforts to persuade staff members at the currently London-based European Medicines Agency that moving to Barcelona in the wake of Brexit would be an attractive option include the offer of free Spanish lessons should the city be awarded the agency.
A decision on the agency’s new home is expected later this year. Retaining a high level of the EMA’s existing staff when the agency moves will be key to ensuring that the disruption to the agency’s processes and operations is kept to a minimum.
Spanish health minister Dolors Montserrat was part of a high-level delegation that visited the EMA headquarters in London on May 2 to promote the Barcelona bid. “What makes the EMA such an effective agency is its people. They have the experience and expertise that we cannot afford to lose,” Montserrat said.
The decision on which European city will host the EMA once the UK leaves the EU is expected in October. (Also see "Suspense Continues Over Formal EMA Hosting Criteria, October Decision On New Home Likely" - Pink Sheet, 2 May, 2017.) Competition among member states is fierce. Around 22 countries are understood to be interested to some degree and numerous major EU countries have formally declared their candidacies. (Also see "Race Hots Up For EMA After Brexit" - Pink Sheet, 21 Apr, 2017.) The EMA itself has said it could lose up to 50% of its staff (Also see "Brexit: EMA Could Lose Up To Half Its Staff If It Has To Move" - Pink Sheet, 2 Dec, 2016.); others, albeit on condition of anonymity, have said the figure could be high as 80% if the chosen location is not seen as sufficiently appealing to existing staff.
“What makes the EMA such an effective agency is its people. They have the experience and expertise that we cannot afford to lose” – Spanish health minister Dolors Montserrat
Barcelona is the capital of the Spanish region of Catalonia. The Spanish delegation, which also included representatives from the Catalan government and Barcelona city council, met the EMA’s executive director, Guido Rasi, and his senior team. It also held a question and answer session with the agency’s Spanish employees who – notes the press release issued by a public relations company on behalf of the Spanish ministry of health, which is running the bid – make up over 10% of the EMA’s London-based staff.
Montserrat highlighted Barcelona’s “strong credentials,” focusing on five key reasons that support the Spanish bid:
- Barcelona’s readiness now to host the EMA, with a building already identified and available. “We could start the transition tomorrow,” Montserrat said.
- Spain’s offer guaranteeing a smooth transition to the vital work undertaken by the EMA.
- the fulfilment of the technical requirements to host the EMA, including Barcelona’s extensive travel connections and accommodation facilities.
- the city’s desirability as a place to work, live and play.
- the city’s expertise as a centre of excellence in healthcare.
The health minister referred to Spain’s drug and device regulator, the AEMPS, as “one of Europe’s best.”
Lessons
The EMA employs just under 900 people. Even excluding Spanish nationals and the UK nationals who currently account for just under 7% of the agency’s staff and who presumably will lose their jobs once the UK leaves the EU on April 1, 2019, the numbers signing up to learn Spanish could be huge. The Barcelona bid team says it can cope regardless of the numbers. “We hope as many as possible staff and their families take up the opportunity to learn Spanish. We’ll have sufficient capacity to meet that demand,” it told the Pink Sheet.
Barcelona has two official languages, Spanish and Catalan.
The Barcelona campaign site (@BCN4EMA) on twitter posted a photo of its visit to the EMA and said there had been a “great meeting today in London” between the health minister and Spanish staff to discuss the bid. It also tweeted the five reasons listed above. Shortly afterwards, the Danish Medicines Agency (@DKMA_dk) tweeted 15 reasons the EMA should go to Copenhagen. Later again, Lars Rebien Sørensen (@ema2cph), the special envoy for the Copenhagen bid, tweeted that “We all have advantages” and that Copenhagen had “a lot going for” it.
Responding to the news that EMA staff would be offered Spanish lessons in the event of a Barcelona win, one pro-Copenhagen tweeter (@TroelsRye) wrote mischievously: “Luckily in Denmark everybody speaks English. No need to give classes.”
We asked the EMA whether any other countries interested in hosting the EMA had made similar offers of language coaching but it had not responded at the time of writing.
From the editors of Scrip Regulatory Affairs.