Ireland is set for a post-Brexit battle with five other EU countries to be the site of the new headquarters of the London-based European Medicines Agency (EMA).

The Irish health minister, Simon Harris, has said he will be pressing the case in Brussels for the relocation of the EMA, one of two key EU agencies that will move once Britain leaves the union.

“The minister has asked his officials to prepare for a bid to bring the EMA to Dublin. We will be making the case that Dublin offers significant advantages as a location, not least the advantage of the English language, a strong pharmaceutical and R&D sector presence,” said a spokeswoman for Harris.

Spain has already staked its claim to either the EMA or the European Banking Authority as part of a land grab in the aftermath of June’s EU referendum. Sweden, Denmark, Italy and Germany have also expressed interest in hosting the EMA.

Harris’s spokeswoman said officials in Dublin had “already begun laying the groundwork” and in September will seek a formal inter-departmental working group to flesh out Ireland’s bid.

The EMA, with a staff of 890, is the largest EU body in Britain and has overseen pan-European drug approvals since 1995 from its headquarters located among global banks in Canary Wharf in London.

Spain, which joined the EU in 1986, will argue that it is time it was considered for one of the more important EU institutions, and the EMA and European Banking Authority are two of the largest.

The EMA works with individual regulatory authorities from all 31 European Economic Area member countries.