EU faces £27m bill for London office vacated after Brexit as WeWork goes broke
The European Union faces a £27 million hit for a sprawling London office it vacated after Brexit, according to a confidential document seen by The Telegraph.
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) offloaded its 280,000sq ft office to the US office-rental giant WeWork after Britain voted to leave the bloc.
But the US firm filed for bankruptcy in November, leaving the future of the vast office complex in doubt.
The EMA signed a 25-year lease worth £500 million for the property five years before the Brexit vote.
The medicines watchdog moved its headquarters, alongside 900 staff, to Amsterdam, as a result of Britain’s departure from the EU.
A High Court judge dismissed its claim that its lease had been “frustrated” by Brexit, leading to the agency to offload the office to WeWork in an attempt to recoup funds.
The US firm signed on to sublet the 10 floors of office space in 2019.
But a document circulated to the European Parliament’s powerful budget committee said the UK branch of WeWork would stop paying rent to the bloc for 30 Churchill Place in Canary Wharf.
The EU now faces a £27 million bill if it remains empty for the rest of the year. The EMA has already requested more funds to cover for the surprise hit to its budget, with MEPs shortly due to decide whether to cover the £4.55 million it will have to pay for the first quarter of 2024.
“The Agency’s current budget for 2024 does not have funding for additional costs outside its annual programme,” the briefing note, labelled confidential and urgent, said.
“As negotiations with WeWork UK continue, it appears increasingly likely that the Union budget will need to contribute towards the rent of the 30 Churchill Place premises, which has until now been fully covered by WeWork UK,” the document adds.
The EU’s lease on 30 Churchill Place expires in June 2039, with the EU still on the hook for £373 million in rent and other charges if a longer-term solution isn’t found.
Meanwhile, the EMA has been left furious by plans to build a mega-brothel near the site of its new headquarters in Amsterdam.
‘Blueprint for a multi-storey erotic centre’
In 2023 it said it was “very concerned” by the blueprint for a multi-storey “erotic centre” that would rehouse sex workers from the Red Light District.
In December, Amsterdam officials confirmed that the site with 100 “work spaces” for sex tourism would indeed be in Europaboulevard.
The plans will now be debated by the city council with the site not due to open until 2031 if it gets the final green light.
The EMA had warned that “the change of location of the red light district is motivated by concerns of nuisance, drug-dealing, drunkenness and disorderly behaviour”, adding: “Locating the Erotic Centre in close proximity to the EMA’s building is likely to bring the same negative impacts to the adjacent area.”
Frank Furedi, the executive director of think-tank MCC Brussels, said: “EU taxpayer’s are on the hook for millions of Euros because of bad decisions by EU agencies.
“We are still paying for the incompetence of the EMA not negotiating an exit clause of their expensive London property.
“There was no need to rush forward to move the European Medicines Agency from London after Brexit, but because of that arrogant decision by the EU, millions will be wasted.”
A Wework spokeswoman said: “We are up to date on our lease obligations at 30 Churchill Place, which remains open and operational. As part of our previously-announced process, we continue to work constructively and collaboratively with our landlord partner at this flagship location to craft a solution that mutually benefits both parties for the long term.”
