The Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety adopted the report Giovanni LA VIA (EPP, IT) on the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Regulation (EC) No 726/2004 as regards the location of the seat of the European Medicines Agency.
As a reminder, the Commission proposal aims at amending Regulation (EC) No 726/2004 in order to confirm the seat of the European Medicines Agency in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
The committee recommended that the European Parliament’s position adopted at first reading under the ordinary legislative procedure should amend the Commission proposal as follows.
According to Members, having a precise timeline in the legislation for the signature of the headquarters agreement is required to prevent delays in the HQ agreement's negotiations and thus to support the preparatory activities for the relocation by 30 March 2019. The headquarters agreement shall include the most appropriate terms and conditions for the successful relocation of the European Medicines Agency and its staff members to Amsterdam.
In order to ensure the Agency’s full business continuity, the temporary location in Amsterdam should be provided as of 1 January 2019 and the permanent headquarters of the Agency should be completed by 15 November 2019. The Commission and the Dutch authorities shall take all the necessary measures to ensure that the Agency can move to its temporary location no later than 1 January 2019 and that it can move to its permanent location no later than 16 November 2019.
A headquarters agreement allowing the Agency to take up its duties at the premises approved by the European Parliament and the Council shall be concluded within three months from the date this Regulation enters into force.
In a statement annexed to this resolution, Parliament regretted that its role of co-legislator has not been duly taken into account since it was not involved in the procedure leading to the selection of the new seat of the European Medicines Agency (EMA). It recalled its prerogatives as co-legislator and insisted on the full respect of the ordinary legislative procedure in relation to the location of bodies and agencies, while insisting that the procedure followed for the selection of a new location for the agencies will be reformed and not used anymore in this form in the future.