Health Minister regrets EMA not moving to a new EU member state

In a secret vote on the future seat of the European Medicines Agency (EMA), Slovakia observed its stance, known beforehand, that it would only support candidates from the new EU-member states, said Health Minister Tomáš Drucker (a Smer-SD nominee) after the voting process in Brussels. He added that due to this stance the final winner had to be selected in a draw. Slovakia, which also ran to host the EMA seat didn't progress to the second round. Milan, Amsterdam and Copenhagen made it to the final, with Amsterdam becoming the new home for the agency following a draw. Drucker went on to say that Slovakia submitted a well-prepared bid that was rated as one of the best. But he thinks that the final decision was the result of internal agreements between member states in which the individual interests of particular countries won over an overall signal to EU citizens.