The fight to host major EU agencies leaving London after Brexit reached a milestone Saturday as Brussels gave its assessment of individual bids, though it stopped short of ranking them. One regulator has warned that the wrong choice could see a mass exodus of staff. The European Commission, the bloc's executive arm, published its views on 19 candidates seeking to be the new home of the European Medicines Agency (EMA), and eight bidding for the European Banking Authority (EBA).
Stressing the need for a timely decision on where the "two key regulatory agencies for the EU's Single Market" - are to go, the Commission said that "their relocation is a direct consequence of the United Kingdom's decision to leave the European Union."
The Commission did not provide a shortlist of bidders, but assessed them against six criteria agreed by the 27 EU members that will remain when Britain leaves the bloc.
These included accessibility, geographical spread, availability of schools and jobs for staff families and guarantees the agency will be able to start work as soon as Britain exits in 2019.
A final decision will be made in November when EU states hold a secret ballot.
The Commission said Saturday it hoped to see a "smooth and timely relocation" which would allow "continuity" of the agencies' activities, including during any transitional period, with new premises being ready.
It said its assessment "respects the Member States' decision that the criteria should be unweighted and does not provide a ranking or shortlist of any kind."
The two agencies were also consulted.
The European Commission's assessments are not binding, although EU leaders are expected to take its findings into account, and the decision will ultimately be deeply political.
Between them, the agencies employ more than 1,000 people and promise to bring money and prestige to the new host cities. The contest has sparked an intense lobbying campaign.
The cities vying for the EMA are Amsterdam, Athens, Barcelona, Bonn, Bratislava, Brussels, Bucharest, Copenhagen, Dublin, Helsinki, Lille, Milan, Porto, Sofia, Stockholm, Malta, Vienna, Warsaw and Zagreb.
The agency, which employs 900 pharmaceutical experts, biologists and doctors from every corner of Europe, evaluates medicines throughout the bloc.
Earlier this week, the EMA warned that nothing less than "the future of public health in Europe" was at stake as it published a survey showing anywhere between 19 percent and 94 percent of staff planned to quit after the agency left London.
The EMA did not name the cities in question but said that for some, staff retention rates could be "significantly less" than 30 percent.
"This would mean that the agency is no longer able to function and, as there is no backup, this would have important consequences for public health in the EU," the EMA said.
Even the best-case scenario would see one in five staff leave as a result of the move, the EMA said.
As for the EBA, the German financial hub of Frankfurt is seen as the frontrunner followed by Paris, Luxembourg and Prague, with Brussels, Dublin, Vienna and Warsaw also in the running. The EBA, with 159 staff, is perhaps best known for its regular stress tests on the EU's financial sector after the global financial crisis.
Six countries - Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland and Poland - have made bids for both agencies. Hungary, Cyprus, Slovenia and the three Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia have not bid for any.
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