AS of Monday the negative impact of Brexit will be further felt as it is decided where two major European agencies, currently based in London, will be relocated to.
The EU member states will take the decision, decided by an arcane secret ballot, as to who will grasp the European Banking Authority (EBA) and European Medicines Agency (EMA), as the UK heads out of the European Union.
Both are much sought-after prizes, considered to be among the EU’s crown jewels, with the former acting as the umbrella regulator for the EU’s banking system and the latter responsible for the protection of public and animal health through the scientific evaluation and supervision of medicines.
By a member state successfully acquiring these not only is there the cachet of being a regulatory base, but there is the magnetic effect they could have in drawing workers from companies keen to be close to their watchdog.
Nineteen locations have submitted bids to host the EMA; eight want the EBA (Brussels, Dublin, Frankfurt, Luxembourg, Paris, Prague, Vienna and Warsaw), with the Austrian and Irish capitals offering particularly generous free office-space deals, according to insiders.
In 2002, I led a campaign to try and bring Eurojust (the European Justice Agency) to Edinburgh. Ultimately this proved unsuccessful and the agency remained in The Hague in the Netherlands. Never did I think I would see agencies exiting our shores as the UK plummets out of the EU.
Slowly but surely the negative effects of Brexit are being felt, and this is yet another chapter in a story which is destined to have a far from happy ending.
Alex Orr,
Flat 2, 77 Leamington Terrace, Edinburgh.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel