It would have been fair if at least one of the London-centred agencies which are compelled to move on account of the departure of the United Kingdom from the EU had been relocated to Central or Eastern Europe, Szabolcs Takács, Minister of State at the Prime Minister’s Office said on Wednesday evening in Brussels.

“A major conclusion of today’s vote is that everything that the leaders of a number of Western European Member States and institutions say about a state of geographical balance merely exists at the level of words”, the Minister of State told the Hungarian news agency MTI in an interview given by telephone.

He added that “many Western European Member States simply ignored” the region which is “not a good message at a time when we must adopt very serious decisions on the future of the EU”.

He highlighted: Hungary would also have been able to submit good and competitive bids for hosting the new headquarters of both the European Medicines Agency and the European Banking Authority, but elected not to do so in order to help the countries of the region which do not yet host EU agencies.

(Cabinet Office of the Prime Minister/MTI)