Day after day what has now been called the Ema case. Too many knots to untie on the designation of Amsterdam as the next seat of the European Medicines Agency. Too many things that don't add up, too many controversial aspects of a story that has left Milan and the whole country with a bitter taste.
Because if before the "problem" concerned the fact that the prestigious Community Agency had gotten out of hand due to a highly contested draw, what is emerging on the'affair Ema is turning into a real joke. Not only for Italy, but also for Europe, which risks making a real international fool.
“The city, the region and the government are working and will continue to work for verify that the process has been carried out correctly and transparently, because if this were not the case, it would not only be an injustice to Milan but an injustice to Italy and Europe”. These are the words of the premier Paolo Gentiloni during the conference held as part of the inauguration of the new headquarters of the Cefriel research centre.
In short, Italy wants to see clearly and to do so it has turned to all the appropriate offices: after the appeal presented to the EU Court of Justice, Palazzo Milano has decided to also appeal to the Court of Auditors.
In the meantime, news is arriving from Brussels that increases doubts about the whole matter. Jean-Claude Juncker, number one of the European Commission, announced the resignation of the general secretary of his institution, the Dutchman Alexander Italianer (in his place Martin Selmayr). Officially, at the basis of the decision, there would be the will to retire.
However, “it happens” that Italianer is also the man who has it secreted, at the request of Holland, the documents sent from Amsterdam to apply to host the EMA from 2019.
Too bad that, thanks to the pressure exerted by Milan, it turned out that they were indicated in that documentation two different temporary locations from those chosen after the award, abandoned due to their "clear inadequacy". Originally, in fact, the two buildings indicated were: the Tripolis, Burgerweeshuispad 200 and 300, and the Infinity Business Centre, Amstelveenseweg 500. Subsequently, the Dutch decided to opt for the Spark Building (also provisional pending the construction of the Vivaldi building) which however, in all probability, will not even be ready in time.
Tomorrow, Thursday 22 February, EU deputies will carry out a verification mission to ascertain the status of the works and understand whether Amsterdam will be able to meet the deadlines. The vote that the parliamentary groups will express in the Environment Committee on the new regulation of the Agency which also establishes the new headquarters could also depend on what will emerge from this technical evaluation. The risk is that of having to postpone the transfer of the EMA headquarters by a year (from 2019 to 20120).
On the EMA “there is no opposition between Milan and Amsterdam, it is not a rematch of a football match that we lost in the first half. It is simply a matter of going to see if in Amsterdam there are the conditions to guarantee the functioning of the agency, which is in the interest of European citizens, to have advanced medicines capable of controlling all the diseases we face”. These are the words of Giovanni La Via (EPP), rapporteur for the European Parliament's environment commission who is taking part in tomorrow's EP mission to the Dutch capital.
