Brexit keeps costing (a lot): the EU still pays 12.5 million eur a year for the EMA’s old headquarters

Brussels – Brexit, the figures don’t add up. The UK officially left the EU at the end of 2020, but after years, the European Union’s budget continues to pay for its past. Specifically, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) moved from London to Amsterdam in 2019, precisely following the UK’s departure from the 12-star club. Yet, despite the divorce, due to contractual obligations that cannot be terminated, the EU continues to pay an average of 12 million euros a month for the former headquarters of an agency that no longer exists on British soil. 

The existence of this expenditure was disclosed during a Public Health Committee meeting of the European Parliament. During the audit and final budgetary review for the EMA, it emerged that not only is the expenditure continuing, but it is actually increasing. Kateřina Konečná, a Czech MEP sitting as an independent, is calling for clarification, convinced that “a long-term political solution to this issue needs to be secured.” This is also because, as she points out in the parliamentary question, the committee responsible “noted with concern that three out of four budget revisions adopted in 2024 had to increase the EU contribution to cover part of the rent for the London premises, many years after the agency had moved out of those premises and the United Kingdom had left the EU.” 

Trade Commissioner Maros Sefcovic admits that the EU continues to pay for the EMA’s original headquarters, and no small amount. There are legal obligations that cannot be waived, he explains, and “to fulfill the contractual obligations towards the landlord (Canary Wharf Group) of the premises in London, additional allocations from the EU budget have been granted to the EU subsidy to EMA.” Specifically, the following amounts have been added: “EUR 11.2 million was added to the EU contribution to EMA in the 2024 budget; EUR 13.3 million in 2025; EUR 13 million in 2026.” The total so far is 37.5 million euros over the three-year period, amounting to an average annual expenditure of 12.5 million euros. However, Sefcovic continues, “for 2027, EUR 12.3 million is currently programmed to be included in the Commission’s proposal for the draft budget,” bringing the total costs for the EMA to 49.8 million euros for the old London premises.

In this situation, the European Commission is acting as much as it can — which is to say, very little. “The lease between EMA and the landlord of its former premises in London is a matter subject to English contract law,” the Trade Commissioner points out. In other words, contracts and the obligations arising from them must be honored. Brexit continues to make its presence felt.