23 cities of 21 countries applied to host the European Banking Authority (EBA) and the European Medicines Agency (EMA) that are moving out of London due to exit of the United Kingdom from the European Union. Despite earlier reports, no Hungarian city is among the applicants.
The application procedure to host the two UK-based EU agencies, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and the European Banking Authority (EBA), came to a close at midnight last night, 31 July 2017.
The EMA is responsible for the scientific evaluation, supervision and safety monitoring of medicines in the EU. The EMA is essential to the functioning of the single market for medicines in the EU.
The EBA works to ensure effective and consistent prudential regulation and supervision across the European banking sector. Among other tasks, the EBA assesses risks and vulnerabilities in the EU banking sector through regular risk assessment reports and EU-wide stress tests.
The European Council has received 27 proposals by the member states, related to 23 cities, to host the EU agencies currently based in the UK. There have been 19 offers to host the EMA and 8 for the EBA.
These are the cities proposed to host the EMA, as on 1 August 2017: Amsterdam (The Netherlands), Athens (Greece), Barcelona (Spain), Bonn (Germany), Bratislava (Slovakia), Brussels (Belgium), Bucharest (Romania), Copenhagen (Denmark), Dublin (Ireland), Helsinki (Finland), Lille (France), Milan (Italy), Porto (Portugal), Sofia (Bulgaria), Stockholm (Sweden), Malta (Malta), Vienna (Austria), Warsaw (Poland), Zagreb (Croatia)
These are the cities proposed to host the EBA, as on 1 August 2017: Brussels (Belgium), Dublin (Ireland), Frankfurt (Germany), Paris (France), Prague (Czech Republic), Luxembourg-City (Luxembourg), Vienna (Austria), Warsaw (Poland).
Observers believe Frankfurt is the top applicant to host the EBA and Amsterdam, Barcelona and Lille are the top three favourites to host the EMA.
Contrary to previous statements by Hungarian government officials and press reports, Hungary has not submitted a bid to host any of these institutions.
The total bidding for the EMA is one less than the 20 countries forecast from a Politico survey of EU member countries to benchmark which are the most and least committed to hosting the prized 890-staff agency. From that survey, nine were very committed, four were fairly committed, eight were less committed and two dropped out.
Politico said the surprises include not only Hungary but also Cyprus, the latter of which announced Monday evening, hours before the final deadline, that it had also opted to drop out.
Hungary’s Economy Minister Mihály Varga had repeatedly said that the cabinet was aiming to host EBA. He made the last such remark on 22 July in an interview with radio Karc FM.
EBA's Executive Director is Hungary's Ádám Farkas, former President of financial markets watchdog PSZÁF, who had been CEO at several commercial banks in Hungary earlier.
Source: European Council
About the EMA
The European Medicines Agency (EMA), a decentralised Agency of the EU, took up its function in 1995. EMA's mission is to evaluate and supervise human and veterinary medicinal products, on grounds of safety, efficacy and quality, in order to protect human and animal health in the EU. EMA does not conduct itself research (no laboratory work, animal tests, or clinical trials), nor does it produce medicines.
EMA's key activities consist in:
Providing a single route for the evaluation of innovative medicines in the EU, hereby avoiding the duplication of the evaluation in Member States (centralised procedure).
Monitoring the safety of all medicines authorised in the EU throughout their life cycle.
Stimulating research and innovation by giving scientific advice and guidance to developers of medicines. Coordinating inspections to verify the compliance with good manufacturing, clinical and laboratory practices.
Hosting IT services to implement the EU pharmaceutical policy and legislation.
About the EBA
The European Banking Authority (EBA) was established on 1 January 2011 as part of the European System of Financial Supervision and took over all existing responsibilities and tasks of the Committee of European Banking Supervisors.
EBA is a decentralised EU Agency which works to ensure effective and consistent prudential regulation and supervision across the European banking sector. Its overall objectives are to maintain financial stability in the EU and to safeguard the integrity, efficiency and orderly functioning of the banking sector.
The main task of the EBA is to contribute to the creation of the European Single Rulebook in banking whose objective is to provide a single set of harmonised prudential rules for financial institutions throughout the EU. The Authority also plays an important role in promoting convergence of supervisory practices and is mandated to assess risks and vulnerabilities in the EU banking sector.
The Authority also plays an important role in promoting convergence of supervisory practices to ensure a harmonised application of prudential rules.
Finally, the EBA is mandated to assess risks and vulnerabilities in the EU banking sector through, in particular, regular risk assessment reports and pan-European stress tests.
