(MENAFN- Gulf Times) London is losing the European Medicines Agency (EMA) to Amsterdam and the European Banking Authority (EBA) to Paris, in one of first concrete signs of Brexit as the UK prepares to leave the European Union.
The two cities were selected to host the agencies after tie breaks that saw the winner selected by drawing a name from the ballot box.
The Dutch capital beat Milan when lots were drawn after three rounds of Eurovision-style voting yesterday had resulted in a dead heat.
Paris won the race to take the EBA from London, after the favourite Frankfurt was knocked out in the second round.
The EU's 27 European affairs ministers, minus the UK, took less than three hours to decide the new home of the EMA, which employs 900 people in Canary Wharf, London.
After a five-month beauty contest, Amsterdam beat competition from 18 cities ranging from fancied contenders such as Copenhagen and Bratislava to outsiders such as Bucharest and Sofia.
In a second secret ballot, EU ministers will decide on the new home of the European Banking Authority, which employs 150 people, also in Canary Wharf.
The British government was powerless to stop the relocation of these two prized regulatory bodies, secured by previous Conservative prime ministers.
The Department for Exiting the European Union had claimed that the future of the agencies would be subject to the Brexit negotiations, a claim that caused disbelief in Brussels.
Speaking before the vote yesterday, the European Union's chief negotiator on Brexit, Michel Barnier, said that 'ardent advocates of Brexit had contradicted themselves on EU rules.
'Brexit means Brexit, he said, turning Theresa May's line back on her.
'The same people who argue for setting the UK free also argue that the UK should remain in some EU agencies.
But freedom implies responsibility for building new UK administrative capacity, he told a Brussels conference hosted by the Centre for European Reform.
'The 27 will continue to deepen the work of those agencies, together, he said. 'They will share the costs for running those agencies.
Our businesses will benefit from their expertise.
All of their work is firmly based on the EU treaties which the UK decided to leave.
The EU has set the UK a two week-deadline to increase its offer on the Brexit divorce bill and spell out how it hopes to avoid a hard border on the island of Ireland, in order to progress to trade talks.
The European Medicines Agency opened in 1995, having been secured for London by John Major's government.
Seen as one of the EU's most important agencies, it carries out assessments and issues approvals for medicines across the union.
The agency is also a boon for hoteliers, as 36,000 scientists and regulators visit each year.
The European Banking Authority started work in 2011 under the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition to tighten up financial supervision after the 2008 crash.
Malta, which had bid as a country, Zagreb and Dublin dropped out of the race for the medicines agency before voting began.
The first two gave up any hope of getting an agency, while Ireland hoped to boost its chances of winning the European Banking Authority.
Barcelona's chances went up in smoke after Catalonia's contested independence vote on October 1 plunged the wealthy region into crisis.
EU ministers promised before the vote not to contest the results.
The cities were judged against their ability to have the agency running before the UK leaves the EU on March 29, 2019.
However, a date has not been set for the official opening of the new office, and arrangements during any Brexit transition remain unclear.
Although the relocation was agreed relatively quickly by EU standards, the move will inevitably cause disruption.
In the run-up to the vote, the EMA said that even a move to the staff's top-choice city would prompt some workers to quit.
Under the best-case scenario, 19% of staff are expected to resign rather than move.
The agency had argued that a move to less popular cities threatened 'a public health crisis, with 'permanent damage to the European system of drug approval.
The EU laid down six criteria to judge the bids, including the city's ability to get the agency up and running on time, transport accessibility, school places and job opportunities for spouses.
Some newer member states had complained that the EU was reneging on a 2003 promise to give priority to countries without an EU agency, as 'geographical spread was only one of the elements to judge the bids.
Bulgaria, Romania, Croatia, Cyprus and Slovakia do not have an EU agency.
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