EMA left its London premises on 1 March 2019 to relocate to Amsterdam. From 4 March 2019, the official address of the Agency is that of its permanent building in Amsterdam Zuidas. For more information, see How to find us.
EMA and the Netherlands have agreed a joint governance structure to steer and oversee the relocation project, with plans to progress activities within individual work streams dealing with EMA's temporary premises, its permanent premises, staff relocation, financial and legal aspects, removal and logistics and external communication.
EMA has published a tracking tool showing the main milestones and deliverables for the Agency's move to Amsterdam:
EMA tracking tool: relocation to Amsterdam - Main milestones
The tool provides a general overview of the main milestones for each work stream (except external communication, which is an ad-hoc activity) and provides further detail, highlighting clearly if EMA is on track to meet the various deliverables.
The tracking tool is a living document, which EMA will update every month. For best results viewing the PDF document, use Acrobat Reader or Chrome web browser.
EMA's new permanent headquarters is a tailor-made building in the Zuidas business district of Amsterdam. The Dutch authorities handed over the building to EMA on 15 November 2019.
EMA staff moved into the EMA building in Amsterdam Zuidas in the week of 13 January 2020.
The EMA building in Amsterdam Zuidas was commissioned by the Dutch government and built by the Central Government Real Estate Agency (CGREA) with a consortium of construction companies.
The Dutch government previously offered temporary premises to EMA, the Spark building in the Sloterdijk area of Amsterdam, from 1 January 2019. This allowed EMA to move to Amsterdam before the end of March 2019 and ensure EMA's business continuity. The Spark building closed on 13 December 2019, allowing EMA to move into the building in Amsterdam Zuidas.
For information on contacting EMA or attending EMA meetings, see How to find us.
EMA and the Dutch Government have signed a Seat Agreement, which ensures that EMA can function properly and independently in the Netherlands.
It also provides assurance that EMA staff members and their families who need to relocate early to the Netherlands can do so under the protection of the Seat Agreement immediately.
It is similar to agreements that apply to other EU agencies established in the country.
The EU 27 Member States took the decision to relocate EMA to Amsterdam on 20 November 2017 in the margins of the General Affairs Council (Article 50) of the European Council.
The decision followed an assessment by the European Commission and EMA of the formal offers submitted by nineteen Member States to host the Agency.
Member States had until 31 July 2017 to submit their bids to the European Council.
The European Commission examined the bids in line with the agreed criteria for the decision on EMA's new location and submitted its assessment to the Council on 30 September 2017.
EMA published the information it submitted to support the European Commission's assessment of the 19 Member State bids to host the Agency on 3 October:
EMA made available the results of a staff retention survey carried out in September 2017 as part of business continuity planning, after staff had the opportunity to study the Member State bids. For more information, see: