
European Medicines Agency (EMA) closes London office with loss of 900 jobs - cirrus-clouds
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/jan/26/european-medicines-agency-closes-london-office-with-loss-of-900-jobs-brexit
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cirrus-clouds
This PDF from October 2017 lists the suitability of the candidate cities
wanting to host the EMA: Amsterdam, Athens, Barcelona, Bonn, Bratislava,
Brussels, Bucharest, Copenhagen, Dublin, Helsinki, Lille, Malta, Milan, Sofia,
Porto, Stockholm, Vienna, Warsaw, Zagreb

[http://www.ema.europa.eu/docs/en_GB/document_library/Other/2...](http://www.ema.europa.eu/docs/en_GB/document_library/Other/2017/10/WC500236018.pdf)

~~~
ragebol
> Amsterdam won the bid to host the agency in 2017.

From the article.

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gotocake
Even though in this case the jobs went to The Netherlands, the Irish are
probably best positioned to benefit from this act of economic suicide England
is engaging in. They’re close to the UK and mainland Europe, they’re building
a reputation for providing favorable conditions to large companies, and it’s
less expensive. Beyond Ireland I think some other EU countries stand to
benefit as well.

All told, when you consider that it’s not as though England is going to break
out in calm stability regardless of how Brexit proceeds, I think the result is
going to be an irretrievable loss for England in particular, and the UK in
general. I also wouldn’t be shocked if this (and demographic shift) ultimately
leads to a reunification in Ireland, and independence passing for Scotland. At
that point I guess England and Wales can try to figure out what to do with all
of that unused and unwanted infrastructure in London.

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jdhn
Can someone explain why this is a big deal? It makes sense to me that EU
agencies wouldn't be stationed outside of the EU, so the fact that they're
moving doesn't seem like it's a big deal in the grander Brexit scheme of
things. Is this because this is a very prestigious agency?

~~~
yakshaving_jgt
Most of the major Brexit proponents said (and continue to say) that jobs will
_not_ be moving abroad, and everyone in the UK will be better off.

Evidently, this is false.

~~~
jdhn
I thought they said that about private sector jobs, not EU jobs? I'll admit
that I haven't been following it too closely since I'm not in the EU.

~~~
stephenbennyhat
For a while David Davis seemed to think the UK could hold on to the EMA. See
[https://pharmaphorum.com/news/uk-keeping-european-
medicines-...](https://pharmaphorum.com/news/uk-keeping-european-medicines-
agency/) for example.

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lazyjones
I have no idea why such articles get posted to HN. Is the Guardian desperate?

