A Race Against Time: EMA Wants 'Immediate' Action On Brexit Relocation Challenges
Executive Summary
The EMA has described some of the practical challenges it will face when it is forced to relocate from London to another EU country as a result of Brexit, including the fit-out of the new premises and the accommodation and schooling needs of its staff and their families. It will have only 17 months to complete the move and be up and running.
It’s not only the timetable for agreeing the UK’s future relationship with the EU after Brexit that is getting tight. Once the European Medicines Agency’s new host country is chosen on Nov. 20, the agency will have less than 17 months in which to get planning approval for its new premises, fit out the new building to meet its requirements, and be up and running by the Brexit date of March 30, 2019.
As well as the practicalities surrounding the future premises, the agency has stressed that it will need information from the host country regarding the availability of suitable housing and schools for its staff and their families, which the EMA says must be forthcoming no later than February next year.
“Moving a large organisation such as EMA to a new location is a challenging undertaking under any circumstances,” the agency says, noting that it is made even more complex by the “ambitious” timetable determined by the UK’s withdrawal from the EU.
The most pressing issue, and one that needs the “immediate attention of the EMA and the host country,” is the new premises that will house the agency, because of the many administrative steps that need to be taken before work on the new building can even begin, the agency says.
For example, the EMA’s building plans need to be approved by local authorities, the agency’s management board and the EU budgetary authority – a process that typically takes between six to eight months. “Fit-out alone of a building that fulfils EMA’s requirements is expected to take between 12 to 15 months,” the agency says.
“Due to the tight timetable, EMA, together with the European institutions and the new host country, will need to explore workable solutions to speed up the approval processes and allow work to be carried out in parallel, rather than in sequence.”
What About The Staff?
The EMA also has to consider the interests of its employees when it relocates. It says schooling will be needed for around 600 children of various ages, and given the time constraints, it will need the new host city to share information about available school places, “taking into account linguistic and other needs,” by February 2018 “at the latest.” This will allow parents working at the EMA who wish to move their children into the country’s education system to do so at the beginning of the 2018/19 school year.
Also vital for the staff is “affordable, good quality housing for up to 900 new households,” the agency points out. It says the new host city will need to provide information on the mix of properties that can accommodate different staff needs and have good transport links to the new building. “EMA staff will need this information also as of February 2018, when they may start looking for accommodation.”
Effective collaboration between the EMA and the new host country on the basis of the commitments made in the offer to host the agency is “essential for a successful move to a new location and EMA’s business continuity,” according to the agency. An adequate joint governance structure will be needed to steer and oversee this “challenging project” and kickstart the collaboration, it says.
Because of its important role in safeguarding public and animal health in the EU, the EMA says it is “committed to giving stakeholders and the public full visibility of the relocation project and will make publicly available in early December a monitoring chart that tracks the progress.”
A total 19 cities have bid to host the EMA, which recently released the results of an internal staff survey intended to give an idea of the likelihood of the agency retaining staff depending on which city was chosen. Five cities were most likely to encourage staff to move with the agency and thereby cause the least disruption to its operations: Amsterdam, Barcelona, Copenhagen, Milan and Vienna. (Also see "EMA Discloses Staff’s Preferred Host Cities, Amid Fears Relocation Could Batter Its Budget" - Pink Sheet, 9 Oct, 2017.) The new host city will be announced following a vote during the Nov. 20 meeting of the EU’s General Affairs Council (Article 50).
From the editors of Scrip Regulatory Affairs.