AS of Monday the negative impact of Brexit will be further felt as it is decided where two major European agencies, currently based in London, will be relocated to.

The EU member states will take the decision, decided by an arcane secret ballot, as to who will grasp the European Banking Authority (EBA) and European Medicines Agency (EMA), as the UK heads out of the European Union.

Both are much sought-after prizes, considered to be among the EU’s crown jewels, with the former acting as the umbrella regulator for the EU’s banking system and the latter responsible for the protection of public and animal health through the scientific evaluation and supervision of medicines.

By a member state successfully acquiring these not only is there the cachet of being a regulatory base, but there is the magnetic effect they could have in drawing workers from companies keen to be close to their watchdog.

Nineteen locations have submitted bids to host the EMA; eight want the EBA (Brussels, Dublin, Frankfurt, Luxembourg, Paris, Prague, Vienna and Warsaw), with the Austrian and Irish capitals offering particularly generous free office-space deals, according to insiders.

In 2002, I led a campaign to try and bring Eurojust (the European Justice Agency) to Edinburgh. Ultimately this proved unsuccessful and the agency remained in The Hague in the Netherlands. Never did I think I would see agencies exiting our shores as the UK plummets out of the EU.

Slowly but surely the negative effects of Brexit are being felt, and this is yet another chapter in a story which is destined to have a far from happy ending.

Alex Orr,

Flat 2, 77 Leamington Terrace, Edinburgh.