The EMA (European Medicines Agency) has been based in London since its establishment in 1995, where it employs about 900 staff members. Accordingly, EMA will now relocate from London to Amsterdam by end of March 2019, due to the UK’s withdrawal from the European Union.

“Amsterdam offers excellent connectivity and a building that can be shaped according to our needs. I am very grateful that the Member States took our requirements into account for business continuity and gave priority to the protection of public and animal health,” said EMA Executive Director Guido Rasi.

One aspect the EMA must deal with is significant staff loss for all those members, who will not relocate to Amsterdam or, for example, short-term contract staff that will no longer be able to work for EMA thanks to employment rules of the Netherlands. In consequence, EMA is expecting a staff loss for approximately 30%. However, thanks to the collaboration between EMA and the Netherlands, a successful move with minimal disruptions will be realised.

With all those difficulties to face, EMA and the Dutch government do all in their power to support the relocation and avoid the creation of gaps in knowledge and expertise. For ensuring this, comprehensive staff recruitment programmes will be offered. To guarantee that everything is sufficiently prepared for the Brexit and EMA’s relocation, a 3-phase plan has been built to protect the staff and prioritised public health activities.

In the first phase, EMA will free-up necessary resources to prepare for the resulting consequences. Secondly, they will aim to continue with high-priority activities in a situation, where staff loss can no longer be compensated through recruitment. Finally, in phase 3, EMA will temporarily scale back additional activities through to 2019 in order to protect essential health activities and training of staff, that will be re-assigned to new duties.