European Parliament votes for EMA in the Netherlands

The European Parliament has approved the relocation of the European Medicine Agency (EMA) to Amsterdam, provided that the authorities submit quarterly reports on the progress of the construction of the new office in Amsterdam’s Zuidas business district. A large majority of the parliament (507 against 112) voted for the Netherlands as EMA's new location.

Employees
The employees working at the agency also prefer Amsterdam above the other candidate cities. According to a survey taken by the EMA itself, 81% of the employees are willing to move to the Netherlands when the agency is relocated to Amsterdam. As the EMA counts almost 900 employees this is a major asset for the Netherlands.

According to Jan Huitema (VVD): “The Netherlands has shown its ability to accommodate EMA. It is not for nothing that Amsterdam is the employees’ preference.’’

EMA building
The EMA will move from London to Amsterdam by no later than 30 March 2019, but the first employees are likely to come to the Dutch capital earlier. The employees will be temporarily accommodated in the Spark building in Amsterdam until construction of the new building has been completed in November 2019.

Click here for EMA's Tracking Tool, showing the main milestones and deliverables for the Agency's move to Amsterdam.

Read all about the advantages of setting up your business in the Netherlands in the special bidbook for the biopharmaceutical industry. It demonstrates all the reasons why the Netherlands is a top location for pharmaceutical operations for those biopharmaceutical companies that are interested in locating their company in the Netherlands. Read the bidbook