The head of the London-based European Medicines Agency Tuesday welcomed the choice of Amsterdam to host the EU regulator but said the move caused by Brexit could entail a loss of up to 200 staff.
“Less uncertainty of course is good news, so overall the mood is very high,” EMA executive director Guido Rasi said at a press conference at the agency’s headquarters in Canary Wharf in east London.
“There is relief because now we have a decision.”
An EU meeting in Brussels on Monday decided the EMA would move to Amsterdam as Britain is leaving the European Union and handed the European Banking Authority, another London-based institution, to Paris.
The two watchdogs currently employ 1,000 staff.
The EMA will start operating in Amsterdam from March 30 2019, the day after Britain is scheduled to leave the European Union.
It has sixteen months to organize a move which is estimated to cost around 400 million euros ($469 million).
“Amsterdam ticks many of our boxes,” Rasi said, praising the city’s “excellent connectivity.”
“It’s offering housing, hotels in the vicinity. It’s offering all the infrastructure to make it happen.”