Who should host the European Banking Authority? Learning from Eurovision

The European Commission will have opened the envelopes and scrutinised their contents as it hits its September 30th deadline to assess bids from the 23 cities that applied to host the European Banking Authority and the European Medicines Agency when they quit London post-Brexit.

The EC now sends its assessment to the General Affairs Council (Article 50)’s October 17 meeting, ahead of a vote by the 27 EU member states (i.e. excluding the UK) at its November 20 meeting. It’s nail-biting stuff. Eight cities threw their hats into the ring for the European Banking Authority: Brussels, Dublin, Frankfurt, Luxembourg, Paris, Prague, Vienna and Warsaw.

The criteria are pretty straightforward: cities will need appropriate office space available on time along with robust logistics (off-site archiving, high-performing telecoms and data storage, physical and IT security standards).

Winning bidders also need to have good accessibility (i.e. good flight connections to EU capitals, good public transport connections from airport to office location; a good supply of quality accommodation facilities); adequate education facilities for children of staff; good social security and medical care for children and spouses; as well as business continuity.

The criteria kind of favour the likes of Paris, Frankfurt or Brussels. Warsaw, for example, is as close to Brussels as it is to Moscow. But it shouldn’t be penalised for where it sits geographically. That would undermine the reality of the bloc’s geo-orientation. Fortunately, the formally stated desirability of geographical spread and priority to acceding States rebalances back in favour of Prague and Warsaw.

The European Union has 63 agencies currently spread over 23 member states. Five countries (Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Malta and Slovakia) score nul points with no EU agencies. Twelve countries (Austria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovenia and Sweden) have one agency each; six countries have two (Greece, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal and the UK). Germany has three; Spain has five; France and Luxembourg six each, Brussels 19.

I like the idea of spreading the spoils around so I would exclude Brussels, Frankfurt, Luxembourg and Paris from the EBA running, leaving Dublin, Prague, Vienna and Warsaw.

In Travelsupermarket’s Hip Hang-out Neighborhood Index, published earlier this year, Warsaw’s Praga came joint second overall in Europe and top of my ‘EBA 4’ with a Hip Hangout Score of 27. Vienna’s Mariahilf and Prague’s Holesovice came joint 12th overall and joint second in the EBA 4 with scores of 22. Praga also made it into Culture Trip’s Most Trendy Neighborhoods across Europe.

Dublin doesn’t feature in Travelsupermarket’s hip index but it is the only EBA 4 city to make it into Huffpost’s Top 10 Hippest Cities (at number 7). Vienna has more Michelin-star restaurants while only Prague makes it into Travel + Leisure’s Top 15 cities in Europe (scoring 11th).

Warsaw has come catching-up to do on hotels: in The Five Star Alliance’s list of the 1,271 best luxury hotels in Europe, the Polish capital has just four properties, against 19 for Vienna, 22 for Dublin and 24 for Prague. Finally, Vienna scores highest among the EBA 4 in the European Green City Index (4th overall in Europe). Warsaw placed 16th, Dublin 21st and Prague 24th.

So how to choose between them? They're all great cities. I've just come back from a few days in Warsaw to celebrate Mrs Mullin's birthday. We had a great time, so I'm kind of leaning that way. But I've visited them all and been equally impressed so I shouldn't be overly biased.

I would truly love to see televised voting Eurovision Song Contest style, along with inane hosting, vigorous flag-waving from an invited audience of bankers, and of course tears from the winner. Roll on November 20!