The Council, in an EU27 format, will prepare the European Council (Art. 50) on 22 June 2017

Agenda highlights

The Council, in an EU27 format, will prepare the European Council (Art. 50) on 22 June 2017. Ministers will discuss the state of play of Brexit negotiations, after the first round of talks with the UK which is expected to take place ahead of the Council meeting.

In the margins of the meeting, ministers will discuss the procedure to decide on the relocation of the two EU agencies currently based in the UK:

• the European Medicines Agency (EMA)
• the European Banking Authority (EBA)

The future location will need to be decided by common agreement of the EU27 member states. The President of the European Council, Donald Tusk, and the President of the Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, have suggested a specific procedure for this. This involves a vote by the 27 member states in the autumn following an assessment of the applications based on objective criteria. The EU27 leaders are expected to endorse the procedure in the margins of the European Council (Art. 50) on 22 June.