Who we are

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) is a decentralised agency of the European Union (EU) responsible for the scientific evaluation, supervision and safety monitoring of medicines in the EU.

Added on 8 May 2025:
'Diversity and inclusion at EMA' section

EMA is governed by an independent Management Board. Its day-to-day operations are carried out by the EMA staff, overseen by EMA's Executive Director.

EMA is a networking organisation whose activities involve thousands of experts from across Europe. These experts carry out the work of EMA's scientific committees.

In this section

• Management Board
• Executive Steering Group on Shortages and Safety of Medicinal Products
• Executive Steering Group on Shortages of Medical Devices
• Executive Director
• Advisory functions
• Human Medicines
• Veterinary Medicines
• Stakeholders and Communication
• Task Forces
• Information Management
• Administration and Corporate Management

2020 organisational changes

On 2 March 2020, EMA implemented changes to its organisational structure to ensure that it operates as efficiently as possible to deliver high quality outputs for public and animal health. 

The main changes comprise:

• integrating operations in the area of human medicines into one human medicines division;
• establishing four mission-critical task forces to support the human and veterinary medicines divisions, bringing together expertise to drive transformational change in high-priority areas.

The re-organisation exercise takes into account the rapidly evolving landscape for pharmaceutical research and development that requires regulators to keep up with advances in science and technology and prepare for future challenges at an ever-accelerating pace. 

The change is also driven by the need to recalibrate to a lower head count following the EMA's relocation to Amsterdam in 2019 whilst dealing with an increased workload due the implementation of various new legislation relating to clinical trials, veterinary medicines, medical devices and data protection.

Management Board

The Management Board consists of 36 members, appointed to act in the public interest, who do not represent any government, organisation or sector.

The Board sets EMA's budget, approves the annual work programme and is responsible for ensuring that EMA works effectively and co-operates successfully with partner organisations across the EU and beyond.

Executive Director

EMA's Executive Director is the legal representative of EMA. 

The Executive Director is responsible for all operational matters, staffing issues and drawing up the annual work programme.

EMA staff

EMA's staff support the Executive Director in carrying out their responsibilities, including administrative and procedural aspects of EU law related to the evaluation and safety-monitoring of medicines in the EU.

Organisation chart of the European Medicines Agency

Diversity and inclusion at EMA

EMA is fully committed to diversity, fairness, respect and solidarity in the workplace. 

This value statement helps make diversity and inclusion (D&I) part of our working culture. 

EMA aims to create an open working environment and attract a diverse workforce. We strive to make people feel safe and respected, and to ensure equal access to career opportunities.

To renew this commitment, EMA developed a gender equality plan that highlights our efforts in this area. 

The gender equality plan aligns with the European Commission's strategy to promote gender equality in the European research area. EMA published this plan in 2025.

It builds on the EMA diversity and inclusion charter that EMA adopted in 2022. This charter introduced EMA's diversity and inclusion working group to help advance related initiatives.

Explore our Careers portal to learn more about EMA's commitment to diversity and inclusion.

EMA Gender equality plan 2025 - 2030

EMA Charter on Diversity and Inclusion

Scientific Committees

EMA has seven scientific committees that evaluate medicines along their lifecycle from early stages of development, through marketing authorisation to safety monitoring once they are on the market.

In addition, EMA has a number of working parties and related groups, which the committees can consult on scientific issues relating to their particular field of expertise.

These bodies are composed of European experts made available by national competent authorities of the EU Member States, which work closely with EMA in the European medicines regulatory network.