European commission says Porto meets the criteria to host EMA

According to an analysis carried out by the European Commission, concerning the evaluation of Member States' proposals to host the European Medicines Agency (EMA), Portuguese application meets the necessary requirements. That is to say that Porto is eligible.

The decision belongs to the 27 Member-States that start debating the issue next Friday.

In a statement, the Commission reports that the assessment was carried out based on the six criteria established in June for the relocation process of EMA, in the framework of Brexit.

The benchmarks were set objectively, and do not provide a formal classification or set out a shortlist of the most suitable candidates.

The main criteria assessed were building space and conditions, accessibility, education on offer, labour market conditions, social security and health cover, security of tenure of EMAS's operations and number of decentralised European agencies of each country.

The European Commission's report states that the Portuguese application complies with the requirements of guaranteeing the continuity of EMA's work, i.e. it attests that Porto ensures the headquarters building will be completed by January 2019.

The first round table will convene in October 6 in Coreper.

The city/country that will host EMA will be announced in November, following an election by secret ballot.