Brussels is sending mixed
signals on Milan's bid to get the European Medicines Agency
(EMA) back from Amsterdam but "we believe in it and we'll go
forward," Lombardy Governor Roberto Maroni said Friday.
Maroni was speaking on the same day that Milan Mayor Giuseppe
Sala said he wanted to be heard by the European Parliament.
Sala also said he had prepared a request to be allowed access
to all relevant documentation.
On Thursday Health Minister Beatrice Lorenzin said that the
Dutch were not honest about their winning bid for Amsterdam to
be the post-Brexit home of the EMA.
The Italian government and the city of Milan are appealing
after doubts were raised about whether Amsterdam will be ready
to host the agency.
"Critical points have emerged in the bid," Lorenzin told a
press conference.
"The Dutch sold us a pup and that is too much, even from a
merchant country.
"The (bid) dossiers must be truthful.
"If we had presented a pack with a brick instead of a TV,
what would the others have said? They would have said it was a
typical Italian move".
Also Thursday, the European parliament's whips conference
approved an EP mission to Amsterdam to verify the conditions for
moving the EMA there from London after Brexit, EP President
Antonio Tajani said.
The mission will take place on February 22.
The city of Milan on Wednesday presented a petition to the
European Court of Justice for it to suspend the transfer of the
EMA from London to Amsterdam pending its appeal.
Milan lost out to Amsterdam to host the EMA after lots were
drawn as a vote among EU member States ended in a draw.
Milan requested the suspension, alongside the main appeal,
using a special procedure for urgent requests requiring
intervention to avoid serious, irreparable damage.
"I don't want to give up on EMA," said Milan Mayor Sala.
"It seems to me that the doubts about the Dutch proposal
increase every day.
"The first step now is a visit to the Commission on the
12th".
The EMA, however, said Wednesday that the temporary home
Amsterdam plans to provide it while it prepares new, tailor-made
premises will enable it to keep working as it moves from London.
"The interim solution ensures EMA's business continuity in
Amsterdam for the limited time until its new permanent building
is completed on 15 November 2019," the EMA said in a statement
after an extraordinary meeting of its management board on
Tuesday.
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