There were many hopes placed in Madrid, but it was not to be. The Spanish capital has lost to Frankfurt and has failed to become the headquarters of the new European Authority against Money Laundering and the Financing of Terrorism (AMLA).
After a secret vote, the Spanish capital has lost to one of the favorites. It was one of the strongest, the German economic capital, one of its main assets was the fact that it houses the headquarters of the European Central Bank along with the European Supervisory Board. It was also the bet of the states.
“Agreement! The Council and Parliament have agreed that the new European Anti-Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Authority will be located in Frankfurt. The AMLA will play a key role in fighting illicit financial activities in the EU, with more than 400 workers, it will begin to be operational in mid-2025,” the rotating presidency of the EU Council, held by Belgium, has announced on social networks.
Madrid was also one of the strong candidates, as well as Paris, also because it had the advantage of the European Banking Authority (EBA). The vote took place with a Eurovision system of points and, for the first time, had a vote from the European Parliament. Until now, these types of decisions were made only behind the scenes of European capitals, but after a ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Union, the European Parliament managed to ensure that they also had a say in who was going to host the new headquarters of the European agency.
The Council of the EU, the institution that represents the member states, and Parliament each had 27 votes. In the first case, each country represented one vote, in the European Parliament, it depended on the weight that each political party has: eight for the European People’s Party, six for the social democratic group, four for the liberals of Renew Europe, three for the Greens and three for Conservatives and European Reformists, two for Identity and Democracy and one for the left group.
In total, up to nine cities were nominated, in addition to Madrid, Paris and Frankfurt, also Rome, Dublin, Riga, Vilnius, Vienna and Brussels. Spain once again aspired to become the headquarters of a large European agency. He tried Barcelona in 2017 to house the offices of the European Medicines Agency (EMA), but Amsterdam was finally taken. Madrid wanted to win the award, because along with Rome, they were the only two cities of the rest of the candidates that did not have any agency of the European Union.
The Minister of Economy, Carlos Body, has strongly supported Madrid’s candidacy, on a joint front with the Madrid mayor’s office, as a symbol of the good harmony that both administrations had, despite belonging to different political groups.
Likewise, among their strengths was the fact that they already had a headquarters prepared to disembark and house approximately 400 workers in the Crystal Tower, the tallest in Spain.
The main objective of the European Authority against Money Laundering and the Financing of Terrorism will be to directly monitor the risk of money laundering in the largest credit institutions in the EU. Likewise, it will be assigned a key role to intervene in case of supervisory failures and will cooperate with financial intelligence units to detect cases of money laundering.
