It was officially chosen Amsterdam, but Italy returns to the fray on the question of the next headquarters of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) once the Brexit negotiations are completed. The battle for theassignment of the EMA headquarters it ended in March 2018 with the favorable vote in Amsterdam of the European Parliament.
The yellow-green government, through the State Attorney's Office, presented official appeal to the Court of Justice of the European Union against EU Regulation 2018/1718 establishing the new headquarters of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) in the city of Amsterdam.
The decision was confirmed by the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Enzo Moavero Milanesi in a note.
The official communication from the Farnesina explains that "The challenge to the regulation is linked to the appeal presented a year ago by the government and still pending before the EU Court of Justice regarding the decision of the EU Council to assign the new headquarters of the EMA to Amsterdam, when the European body leaves London” once the Brexit negotiations are concluded.
"The new appeal - continues the Farnesina in the note - confirms Italy's determination to have the legitimacy of the procedures followed to establish the new headquarters of the European Medicines Agency duly verified at the judicial level, given the fact that the candidacy of Milan offered all the immediate guarantees for the operational continuity of an EU agency, such as EMA, which is fundamental for protecting the health of citizens of the European Union”.
Yesterday, Tuesday 12 February, the Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte during the discussion in the European Parliament in the Strasbourg office following his first speech as Italian representative he replied to the Pd's MEP Daniele Viotti who had recalled the many absences of members of the Italian government at ministerial tables at European level, saying " You are a member of a party that has not adequately presided over the European tables regarding the Ema affair (the European Medicines Agency moved in November 2017 from London to Amsterdam instead of Milan) and we are still paying the consequences". replied Conte.
It was January 2018, when the European Court of Justice announced through the Twitter account that the two appeals for challenging the assignment of the European Medicines Agency to Amsterdam ainstead of being received in Milan: one is from the Italian government led by the then Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni at the Court of Justice of the EU with the request to annul the decision of the EU Council; and the other from the Municipality of Milan to the EU Court, and which reports the same request for annulment of the Council's decision.
The government's appeal to the European Court of Justice reads Italy's request to cancel the decision "adopted on the sidelines of the meeting of 20 November 2017 of the Council of the European Union in the part in which it was established that the new seat of the European Medicines Agency was located in Amsterdam and, consequently, to establish the assignment of the headquarters to the city of Milan". The document requests "by way of investigation", to "request the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the EMA and any other institution, body, office or agency to provide all the information necessary to account for the suitability of Amsterdam as the headquarters of the EMA, to meet the criteria”. Finally, it is requested that "any other possible investigative means deemed useful for ascertaining the facts be established".
