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The EU executive said its assessment, published on Saturday, was
wholly based on the information provided by governments in their
bidding war to host the two agencies, which will be forced to
relocate from Britain when it leaves the bloc.
"It (the assessment) respects the member states' decision that
the criteria should be unweighted and does not provide a ranking
or shortlist of any kind," the Commission said in a statement.
Nineteen member states have bid to host the European Medical
Agency (EMA) and eight want the European Banking Authority
(EBA).
The final say on where to move the agencies rests with EU
leaders who will try to reach a deal at their next summit in
three weeks' time, with a final decisions a month later.
Candidate cities will be appraised based on their ability to
have an office ready in time, their accessibility, the quality
of schools, healthcare and jobs for the families of staff, and
how disruptive the move would be.
In their eagerness to host the agencies, some governments have
offered tax breaks or rent-free headquarters for the EU
institutions - a big break for the bloc's budget.
However, the EU's need to ensure business continuity could clash
with another EU ambition - spreading the bloc's agencies more
evenly across Europe and giving newer, eastern member states a
chance to catch up.
The EMA on Tuesday warned that it could lose more than 70
percent of its staff, making it unable to function, if
politicians pick an unpopular base for the London-based agency
once Britain leaves the European Union.
Amsterdam, Barcelona or Vienna were the top three choices of
staff, according to a survey of around 900 of its workers. All
of those cities already host one or more EU agencies.
The EMA has said it would take at least three years to recover
fully from the disruption to its operations. It sees retaining
staff as key to maintaining essential services such as new drug
approval and monitoring side effects.
(Reporting by Alissa de Carbonnel; Editing by Andrew Bolton)
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