REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL on the compliance of the European Banking Authority with the requirements regarding the location of its seat
Date: 2019-10-09
Institutions: Directorate-General for Financial Stability, Financial Services and Capital Markets Union, European Commission
Subjects: European Banking Authority, France, Ile-de-France, United Kingdom, operation of the Institutions, seat of institution, withdrawal from the EU

EN 

  EN 

   EUROPEAN COMMISSION  Brussels, 9.10.2019  COM(2019) 451 final  REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL on the compliance of the European Banking Authority with the requirements regarding the location of its seat            
 
 
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INTRODUCTION 

In  the  context  of  the  United  Kingdom’s  withdrawal  from  the  Union,  the  other  27 
Member States, meeting in the margins of the Council, selected Paris as the new seat 
of the European Banking Authoriry (EBA)1.  

The EBA’s seat is stipulated in Article 7 of the EBA founding Regulation2 (the EBA 
regulation),  which  therefore  had  to  be  amended  to  move  the  seat  from  London  to 
Paris.  In  addition  to the change of seat,  the amendment to  the EBA regulation3 also 
introduced new requirements for EBA in relation to its seat and an obligation for the 
Commission to publish a report by 30 March 2019 and every 12 months thereafter on 
EBA’s compliance with these requirements. 

According to Art. 7 of the EBA Regulation: “The location of the seat of the Authority 
shall not affect the Authority’s execution of its tasks and powers, the organisation of 
its governance structure, the operation of its main organisation, or the main financing 
of its activities, while allowing, where applicable, for the sharing with Union agencies 
of  administrative  support  services  and  facility  management  services  which  are  not 
related to the core activities of the Authority”.  

The  EBA  provided  the  necessary  input  to  fulfill  these  reporting  requirements.  This 
first report under the new reporting obligation is published after 30 March 2019 since 
full operations in Paris did not start until 3 June 2019.  

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EBA  HEADQUARTERS AGREEMENT 

A  Headquarters  Agreement  (hereinafter,  HQA)  was  approved  by  the  EBA 
Management Board on 4 March 2019 and signed at a ceremony in Paris on 6 March 
2019.  The  EBA  is  awaiting  confirmation  of  completion  of  the  internal  procedures 
required in France for the HQA to enter into effect. The signature of the HQA has not 
affected the EBA’s operations and governance.    

In  addition  to  reflecting  the  requirements  of  Protocol  No  7  on  the  privileges  and 
immunities  of  the  European  Union4,  the  HQA  establishes  the  privilege  for  staff 
relocating from London to Paris of purchasing a car tax–free within twelve months of 
relocation,  a  privilege  that  has  been  extended  to  staff  with  French  nationality.  The 
HQA  also  commits  the  French  government  to  engage  in  a  process  to  establish  a 
European  School  in  the  Paris  Region.  The  Board  of  Governors  of  the  European 
Schools  has  approved  the  dossier  of  conformity  of  the  proposed  European  School, 
which is scheduled to open in Courbevoie in September 2019. These two measures of 

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4  

General Affairs Council (Art. 50), 20 November 2017:  
https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2017/11/20/european-banking-
authority-to-be-relocated-to-city-country/  
Regulation  (EU)  No  1093/2010  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the  Council  of  24 
November  2010  establishing  a  European  Supervisory  Authority  (European  Banking 
Authority) (OJ L 331, 15.12.2010, p. 12). 
Regulation (EU) 2018/1717 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 November 
2018,  amending  Regulation  (EU)  No  1093/2010  as  regards  the  location  of  the  seat  of  the 
European Banking Authority (OJ L291, 16.11.2018, p. 1). 
OJ C202, 7.6.2016, p. 266-272 

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support  will  assist  staff  in  their  relocation,  particularly  those  with  families  with 
school-age children.   

The EBA has also engaged with the Protocol office of the French Ministry of Europe 
and  Foreign  Affairs  and  with  the  French  customs  authorities  to  ensure  a  smooth 
process in relation to the arrival of staff and their families in France, the provision of 
special residence permits, and the application of tax privileges to the EBA. 

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EBA GOVERNANCE, OPERATIONS AND EXECUTION OF TASKS 

The  EBA’s  tasks  and  powers,  the  organisation  of  its  governance  structure,  the 
operation  of  its  main  organisation,  and  its  main  financing  were  not  affected  by  the 
relocation of the EBA’s seat. 

The  EBA  received  special  funding  from  the  French  government  to  assist  with  the 
relocation costs as follows: 

  1.5  million  euros  to  be  used  as  a  contribution  to  the  costs  of  fitting  out  the 

Paris offices. This has been received and paid; 

  7 million euros to be used as a contribution to the rent and building charges of 
the  Paris  offices.  To  date  the  EBA  has  received  2.5  million  of  this  amount. 
The  balance  will  be  received  over  the  duration  of  the  lease  on  the  offices  in 
Paris. 

Until the arrival of the EBA’s new Chairperson on 1 May 2019, the EBA’s alternate 
chairperson acted as the EBA’s  Interim Chairperson, including  by signing the  HQA 
on the EBA’s behalf. As the new office premises in Paris were not available until the 
end of May 2019, specific arrangements were applied during the interim period April-
May 2019 with the aim of keeping to a minimum the disruption for EBA staff and to 
fully  maintain  operational  continuity.  Senior  management  has  been  operative  from 
Paris  as  of  30  March  2019  where  EBA  secured  limited  temporary  offices  in  the 
Europlaza building (the building of the new premises of the EBA).   

As of 1 April 2019 the EBA has started to arrange key meetings in Paris and other EU 
cities.  The  Banque  de  France  has  provided  particular  support,  hosting  the  Board  of 
Supervisors  on  16/17  April  2019,  while  a  public  hearing  was  also  organised  in  the 
Europlaza building. 

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EBA OFFICE RELOCATION 

Intensive weekly meetings took place in Europlaza in the last few months to monitor 
and  resolve  issues  related  to  the  fit-out  works.  While  the  full  completion  of  fit-out 
works  by  the  landlord  experienced  a  delay  beyond  the  contractual  deadline  of  16 
April 2019, there was sufficient progress to allow the EBA to keep its timeline for its 
full  office  relocation.  The  completion  of  the  EBA  premises  in  Europlaza  (furniture, 
audio-visual  equipment  and  end-user  IT)  by  external  contractors  and  EBA  staff 
finished  by  31  May  2019,  while  the  deadline  of  the  completion  of  the  EBA  office 
removal from London to Paris was 2 June 2019. Full operations in Paris started on 3 
June  2019  when  all  staff  took  up their  duties  in  the  EBA’s  new  headquarters  in  the 
Europlaza building. 

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EBA DATA CENTRE RELOCATION 

With  its  data  centre  hosting  contracts  expiring  in  2019,  EBA  decided  to  migrate  its 
data centre to an Interagency Community Cloud environment, in line with its hosting 
strategy  and  ahead  of  the  expected  March  2019  Brexit  date.  In  its  2018  Datacentre 
migration  program,  EBA,  in  close  collaboration  with  the  European  Insurance  and 
Occupational  Pensions  Authority  (EIOPA),  designed,  planned,  contracted  and  fully 
implemented the transfer of its hosted data and infrastructure services.  This ensured 
no disruption to the Agency’s activities, improved security and reduced cost for same 
or better quality of service. 

The  EBA  has  joined  two  inter-institutional  procurement  procedures  led  by  the 
information  and 
European  Securities  and  Markets  Authority  (ESMA):  for 
communications  technology  (ICT)  consultancy  services  (framework  contract  signed 
on  8  October  2018),  and  for  facility  management  consultancy  services  (framework 
contract  awarded  on  30  April  2019).  Based  on  the  ICT  consultancy  contract, 
knowledge  from  the  existing  UK  based  IT  interims  is  being  transferred  to  the 
contractor, in order to ensure that the technical knowledge of all IT applications and 
projects is retained at the EBA and stored in a structured manner. 

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CONCLUSIONS 

Based on the available information, the EBA’s execution of its tasks and powers, its 
governance structure, its main organisation, and the financing of its activities have not 
been affected by the relocation of the EBA’s seat to Paris and by the administrative 
cooperation  arrangements  with  ESMA  and  EIOPA  described  above,  which  are  not 
related to the core activities of the EBA. 

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