LUXEMBOURG (CN) — A magistrate at the European Union's highest court concluded Wednesday that the court has no jurisdiction over a dispute about the relocation of the bloc’s medical regulatory agency.
Advocate General Michel Bobek authored the nonbinding opinion, which finds that the European Court of Justice has no legal basis to adjudicate the dispute brought by Italy, after it lost the European Medicines Agency seat to the Netherlands.
The EMA, established in 1995 to harmonize drug regulation across the EU, was forced to leave its London offices following the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the union. The Dutch capital of Amsterdam prevailed over the northern Italian city of Milan in a 2017 lottery, after voting on the new EMA headquarters was deadlocked.
Italy, together with the city of Milan, launched a complaint, arguing the decision-making process wasn’t transparent enough. In a related case, the city and country also contested a decision by the European Parliament to locate the newly founded European Labour Authority in Slovakia’s capital, Bratislava.
The European Commission, the EU’s executive body, was tasked with deciding where the EMA would next call home following Brexit. Nearly every EU country, 23 in total, tossed their hat in the ring.
During an EU General Affairs Council meeting, three cities emerged as top contenders: Milan, Amsterdam and Denmark’s capital city of Copenhagen. After the second round of voting, only Milan and Amsterdam remained. A final round left the two cities with an equal number of votes, so a lottery was used to ultimately award the drug agency's headquarters to Amsterdam.
According to Bobek, decisions over where to locate EU agencies fall outside of the Court of Justice’s jurisdiction because representatives of the member states voted on the matter, rather than the decision being made by an EU institution.
“Acts adopted by representatives of the member states acting, not in their capacity as members of the council, but as representatives of their governments, and thus collectively exercising the powers of the member states, are not subject to judicial review by the EU courts,” the Czech judge wrote.
While Bobek’s opinion for the Luxembourg-based court is nonbinding, the court follows the legal reasoning of its magistrates in about 80% of cases.
As the EU agency responsible for approving new medications, including the Covid-19 vaccinations, the EMA has had a busy 18 months. Its 900 staff members moved in 2019 to their new location in Amsterdam’s Zuidas district.
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