The Netherlands won the contest to host the London-based European Medicines Agency in the first concrete political victory in the battle for Brexit spoils. The European Union drugs regulator will relocate to Amsterdam by the time Britain departs from the 28-nation bloc in March 2019. The Dutch capital emerged victorious against 15 other candidates after a series of secret ballots by EU governments on Monday in Brussels. A run-off against Milan ended in a tie, which prompted a drawing of lots for the final result. The decision caps months of lobbying over applications at the outset by 19 cities ranging from Stockholm to Bucharest that sought to lure the EMA. The agency, which evaluates applications for new drugs and oversees the safety of medicines, employs about 900 people and attracts 36,000 visitors a year to London from government, science and industry. Estonia, current holder of the EU’s six-month rotating presidency, used a Twitter posting to announce the result of the voting by the bloc’s general-affairs ministers. The campaign to woo the EMA funneled a side effect of Brexit into a long EU tradition of intense maneuvering by member nations for the political and economic rewards that come with hosting pieces of Europe’s extensive regulatory machinery. While highly political, the process for picking the new home of the EMA was given a veneer of objectivity through criteria that the EU fixed for the applications. These included accessibility, availability of schools and health care for staff families, and an assurance of operational readiness when Brexit happens. Dutch Promises Amsterdam lured the EMA by promising to build a new office in the Zuidas area of the city, already home to companies including paint maker Akzo Nobel NV and bank ABN Amro Group NV. In an interview in July, Amsterdam’s deputy mayor in charge of economic affairs, Kajsa Ollongren, emphasized how close the new EMA premises would be to the city’s Schiphol airport and stressed that there are “5,000 hotel rooms in the vicinity.” EU governments will also pick later on Monday the future home of the London-based European Banking Authority, which eight cities including Dublin, Paris and Frankfurt are seeking to lure. The EBA works to align banking rules in the EU and has fewer than 200 employees.