european medicine agency

Decision due at 6pm amid doubts over whether the independence process affected Barcelona’s candidacy

The Spanish Minister of Health, Dolors Montserrat, defended on Wednesday that the current political debate in Catalonia, where the government plans to hold an independence referendum in autumn, does not damage Barcelona's candidacy to host the European Medicines Agency. In comments to the press from Brussels, where she held meetings with the Health Commissioner Vytenis Andriukaitis and the Secretary-Generals of the Commission and the Council, Montserrat said that “no one” had raised the issue of independence. “We are the government of all Catalans and we want the EMA in Barcelona. I am strongly convinced that (the independence debate) does not affect this at all. No one has asked me about it,” she insisted. Montserrat said that the Catalan capital is already “ready” to host the 900 EMA staff members at the iconic Torre Agbar building and said that Barcelona “fulfills” all the criteria.