Amsterdam, Nov 16 (AFP/APP): The Netherlands showed off the spoils of Brexit on Friday as it officially handed over the European Medicines Agency’s new building in Amsterdam after the regulator was forced to move from London.
The 300-million-euro ($330 million) building — which boasts features including a 16-storey high wall of 54,000 plants and a rooftop bar — was built in less than two years after Amsterdam won an EU-wide contest to host the agency.
It will now be home to more than 700 staff who have had to make the “painful” move to the Netherlands from London along with their families, following Britain’s shock vote to leave the European Union.
“Of course we are happy with the fact that the EMA is now based in Amsterdam, it’s one of the outcomes of the whole Brexit decision,” Medical Care and Sport Minister Bruno Bruins told AFP.
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“This all for the economy of the Netherlands is very fruitful.”
Dutch officials say around 100 international companies have moved to the Netherlands so far because of Brexit while more than 300 others have expressed an interest.
“The EMA building moving to Amsterdam will be kind of a magnet because so many other institutions, so many other companies are willing to work together with the EMA,” said Bruins.
The EMA — which regulates all medicines for humans and animals across the EU — moved to a stop-gap building in Amsterdam in January while it waited for the new base to be completed.
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That provoked protests — and legal action — from Italy, whose northern city of Milan lost out to Amsterdam in a tense tie-break to host the agency in November 2017.
Bruins however insisted the Dutch had “delivered our promise”, building the HQ from scratch in just a year and a half.
