Three-Fifths of Displaced EMA Workers Have Made it to Amsterdam

Nearly three-fifths of European Medicines Agency workers displaced by the ongoing Brexit preparations have made it across the English Channel to temporary headquarters, the agency said.

The EMA has shed 125 jobs since the end of last year — jobs the agency doesn’t expect to replace — as it moves its headquarters from London to Amsterdam. Of the remaining 776 workers, 464 are already in Holland and another 312 are telecommuting, the EMA said at its management board meeting, the minutes of which were published Monday.

Construction of the agency’s new headquarters is scheduled for completion by November 2019 and EMA staff are expected to move in by Jan. 6, 2020.

“A recruitment exercise is currently ongoing to make sure that staff who decide not to relocate can be replaced,” the EMA said. But the agency doesn’t expect to reach its previous headcount, which included many workers on short-term, local contracts.