Christian Wenande
February 15th, 2017

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The chess game has begun (photo: EMA)

Copenhagen’s efforts to be chosen as the future headquarters of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) may become a Greater Copenhagen project supported by the Scania Region in southern Sweden.

Copenhagen’s mayor, Frank Jensen, has called for the entire Greater Copenhagen region to support the push for the EMA – which is being forced to relocate from London in the wake of the Brexit vote last summer.

“In the new Copenhagen Science City, around Rigshospitalet, we have the largest concentration of life science research in Scandinavia and we are hoping to attract even more,” Jensen told News Øresund.

“In co-operation with the government, we have bid to bring the EMA to Copenhagen. Sweden wants to bring it to Stockholm, but I expect that we stand together in the Greater Copenhagen Region.”

Jensen went on to remind the Swedes that Denmark lent its support, financially and politically, to the European Spallation Source (ESS) being placed in Lund.

READ MORE: Denmark throws hat in ring for EMA relocation

Malmö monkey wrench
But there might be a small Swedish monkey wrench being tossed into the Danish machinery.

Whereas top politicians in Region Scania and Helsingborg have uttered their support for Copenhagen’s candidacy, Malmö has been less forthcoming, citing Sweden’s capital as also being a candidate.

“The balance we have with the Medicines Agency is to remind our government that what benefits us benefits the entire country,” Katrin Stjernfeldt Jammeh, the mayor of Malmö, told News Øresund.

“But it is also true that if things are going well for Stockholm, it is good for us too.”

Aside from Copenhagen and Stockholm, Amsterdam, Milan, Dublin and Barcelona have also announced their candidacies for the EMA – and its 900 jobs.