MEPs nonetheless pressed the EU Commission and the Dutch
authorities to deliver the new facilities on time, so as to
ensure a smooth transition for the agency and let it move
to its temporary location no later than 1 January 2019 and
to its new permanent headquarters no later than 16 November
2019.
Lead MEP Giovanni La
Via (EPP, IT) said “We are concerned about the
risk of delay in the construction of the new Vivaldi
building in Amsterdam, as this could cause a deterioration
of the agency’s workflow, which is precisely what we want
to avoid.
We added conditions to the legislative text, in order to
highlight the delivery deadlines to be respected and to set
an obligation to report every three months on the state of
play of the building’s adjustments and construction, by the
Commission and Dutch authorities.
Member states should not expect the European Parliament
just to rubber-stamp their decisions. We regret that its
role of co-legislator was not respected, and that is why we
want this decision to be taken to a trilogue, under the
co-decision procedure”.
Next steps
The resolution was passed by 507 votes to 112, with 37
abstentions. MEPs will now start informal three-way
(“trilogue”) negotiations with the Council Presidency and
Commission in order to strike a first-reading agreement on
the new EMA seat.
Background
The European Medicines
Agency (EMA) is a decentralised agency of the EU.
Its mission is to foster scientific excellence in the
evaluation and supervision of medicines in the Member
States of the EU and the European Economic Area.
The EMA is governed by a management board and employs 897
staff (December 2016
figures). Its main activities include: facilitating the
development of and patient access to medicines; evaluating
applications for marketing authorisations; monitoring the
safety of medicines throughout their use in healthcare
practice; and providing information to healthcare
professionals, patients and the public.
