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Sweden submits official bid to take EU agency from London after Brexit

Sweden has formally submitted its official offer to take an important EU agency from London following the UK's departure from the European Union.

Published: 1 August 2017 11:12 CEST

Sweden submits official bid to take EU agency from London after Brexit

The European Medicines Agency is currently based in London's Canary Wharf. Photo: Frank Augstein/AP

The Nordic nation has been courting the European Medicines Agency (EMA) for a year now following the Brexit vote in the United Kingdom, hoping to take the EU medical watchdog currently headquartered in London’s Canary Wharf and employing around 900 people.

READ ALSO: Stockholm will lobby to take EU agency and 900 jobs from London post-Brexit

Considered a major draw for the pharmaceutical industry, Sweden hopes to host the EMA in capital city Stockholm, which it argues would come with several advantages. One of those is the presence of the Karolinska Institute medical university, meaning the EMA would be offered “a research environment that includes one of the world’s foremost medical universities and the Nobel Assembly as its closest neighbours,” the official offer notes.

The offer also explains that the Swedish Medical Products Agency would increase its staff to assist the EMA if a move took place, and argues that relocating to Stockholm would create “synergy effects” with the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), a body already based in the Swedish capital, saving resources.

“The EMA is strategically important for the EU's global competitiveness. We are convinced that Sweden's offer is best able to benefit the EMA and the EU as a whole,” Prime Minister Stefan Löfven said in a statement.

“The EMA is an extremely important agency for health and medical care and patient safety in the European Union. Sweden and Stockholm can provide the seamless transition required,” added Minister for Health and Social Affairs Annika Stranhäll.

In May, Sweden launched a website detailing reasons why the agency should move there, boasting about Stockholm’s public transport and flight connections, the country’s high ability in English, and also lifestyle factors like Stockholm’s nature and the Swedish work-life balance.

READ ALSO: Sweden intensifies push to take EU agency from London after Brexit

Competitors for Sweden’s bid to host the agency include Ireland, Italy, Denmark and Poland. A final decision is due to be made by the Council of the European Union in November.

The difficulties of moving to Sweden as a non-EU spouse... even if you marry a Swedish princess

Princess Madeleine and Chris O’Neill are moving back to Sweden with their three children in August. We hope they like it here.

Unfortunately for O’Neill, some things have changed since he left Sweden in 2015. Brits are no longer EU citizens, which means he’ll have to apply for a residence permit like all the other non-EU citizens planning a move to Sweden.

Unlike before, when O’Neill could live in Sweden as a self-sufficient EU citizen with comprehensive health insurance, there’s no such option for non-EU citizens, meaning he’ll have to fulfil the criteria for a non-EU residence permit (uppehållstillstånd), apply from abroad, and potentially wait for his permit to be processed before he can enter Sweden.

With waiting times well over a year for both family reunification permits and work permits, planning a move to Sweden in just a few months might be a bit… optimistic.

What options does Chris O’Neill have?

The most obvious route for O’Neill to take is a residence permit for moving to someone in Sweden, sometimes also referred to as a sambo permit.

O’Neill qualifies for this, as he is married to a Swedish citizen. His wife must also be able to support him and his three children. According to the Migration Agency, this maintenance requirement is fulfilled if the family member in Sweden has enough money to pay for their home, as well as living costs for the family.

The Migration Agency states more specifically that the Swedish family member must earn 9,445 kronor per month to support a couple living together, plus 3,055 kronor per month for each child under the age of six and 3,667 kronor for each child aged between 7 and 10 years old.

The couple’s children are aged 5, 7 and 9, meaning that Madeleine will need earnings of at least 19,834 kronor a month (after tax) on top of housing costs in order to fulfil this requirement. She can also fulfil this requirement by having enough savings to support the entire family for at least two years – so a mere 476,016 kronor, plus whatever their housing costs will be for the two-year period.

Let’s assume that she can cover the family’s living costs – she’s a member of the Swedish royal family, after all.

Next, Madeleine needs to have a home “of a suitable size and standard” for the family to live in together.

The Swedish Migration Agency states that a family consisting of two adults needs to have an apartment with a minimum of one room and a kitchen or kitchenette, with more rooms necessary if the family has children. Two children can share one room, it states, meaning that O’Neill and Madeleine need a room with at least three rooms, one kitchen and one bathroom for them and their three children.

The family’s seven-room apartment by Nybroplan in Stockholm is definitely “of a suitable size”, and after a six million kronor renovation a few years ago we can assume that the standard is up to scratch.

O’Neill will also have to provide proof of identity with a valid passport. He’s a citizen of the US and the UK, so here he can choose whichever passport he prefers.

Great, so Madeleine and Chris O’Neill easily fulfil the requirements.

What are the next steps?

Firstly, as Madeleine is a Swedish citizen planning on moving to Sweden with a family member who does not hold EU citizenship, the couple will need to prove that they are planning on moving to Sweden “within the near future”. They can do this by providing a housing contract or a job offer, or presumably a press statement from the Swedish royal family stating their plans to move over in August.

O’Neill can’t move to Sweden until his application has been processed, but he is allowed to visit Sweden for up to 90 days at a time, and, as a citizen of a visa-free country, he doesn’t need a visa to do so.

He may also need to visit a Swedish embassy abroad in order to undertake an interview before his application can be processed.

With the family planning on enrolling their children in Swedish schools this autumn, it looks like Chris and Madeleine – like many couples consisting of a Swede and a non-EU citizen – will have to live apart, with Chris separated from his children for months at a time.

In that time, he won’t be eligible for a Swedish personal number, Swedish healthcare, or any other benefits such as sick leave or VAB.

He’ll also have trouble getting BankID or opening a Swedish bank account (unless he already has one from last time they lived in Sweden), and may struggle to get a gym membership, phone contract, or even a membership card at the local ICA (do husbands of princesses do their own food shopping?)

As a British citizen applying for a residence permit for the first time to move to someone in Sweden for the first time who he has been living together with outside Sweden for at least two years, O’Neill can expect to wait around 15 months. Now, that figure isn’t a guide – technically, only 75 percent of recently closed cases matching those criteria were concluded within 15 months – so he could have a much longer or much shorter wait before he’s reunited with his family.

You may be thinking ‘but he’s a successful businessman, can’t he just apply as a self-employed person’? Well, yes, if he wants, but then he’ll be waiting even longer – 75 percent of recently closed cases for permits as a self-employed person got an answer within 29 months.

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