Frankfurt will host the headquarters of the European anti-money laundering agency

Few surprises in the election of the headquarters of the European Anti-Money Laundering Agency (AMLA).

It will be Frankfurt, the German city that already houses the headquarters of the ECB and the Insurance and Pensions Agency.

Germany had bet heavily on taking this new European organization, as had France with Paris, which is the great loser of this process.

Madrid was another contender to become the European capital against money laundering.

Paris' defeat is double, because it was not even the second most voted city.

Madrid has been.

The first was the German city, with 28 votes, just enough to be elected in the first vote.

The second was the Spanish capital, with 16. Then Paris arrived, with 6, and then Rome, 4. The meeting between the representatives of the States and the European Parliament began at six in the afternoon and it only took one round .

Although one of the criteria that prevailed in the choice of the AMLA headquarters was the dispersion of headquarters, from the beginning it was seen that the interest of Frankfurt and Paris, which is the headquarters of the European Banking Authority and the European Securities and Markets Commission, was not going to be decisive.

If Madrid and Rome had been, they would have had more options.

The Italian capital does not have any EU agency and in the Madrid region there is only the EU Satellite Center, located in Torrejón de Ardoz.

✅Deal!

@EUCouncil & @Europarl_EN agreed that the new European Anti-Money Laundering Authority (#AMLA) will be located in Frankfurt 🇩🇪

💸 AMLA will play a key role to fight illicit financial activities in the EU.

With more than 400 staff, it will start its operations mid-2025.

pic.twitter.com/acjTNaSbJG

— Belgian Presidency of the Council of the EU 2024 (@EU2024BE) February 22, 2024

The process had five other candidates: Vienna, Brussels, Dublin, Riga and Vilnius.

Except for the latter, the rest have not had options at any time, several sources have pointed out in recent days.

The capital of Lithuania was one of those selected in the shortlist of the popular European group.

Although finally the Parliament's preferred candidates have been Frankfurt, Madrid, Paris and Rome.

This already practically closed the race because the Council of the EU, that is, the member states, has opted for Frankfurt.

In previous similar processes, that would have been enough.

However, Parliament has also participated on an equal footing with the Council in the election of the AMLA headquarters.

Each of the two co-legislative bodies had 27 votes when selecting the headquarters of the new agency.

The fact that Madrid presented a technically good candidacy gave it possibilities because it was one of the candidates that the MEPs viewed favorably.

The presentation before the Economy and Justice Commissions of the European Parliament, plus the member states, had made a good impression on the parliamentarians, who were able to listen and ask questions to the mayor of Madrid, José Luis Martínez-Almeida, and the Minister of Economy. , Carlos Body.

This is clearly seen in the final result.

Probably all or almost all of the votes in the Spanish capital come from Parliament.

Few or none, difficult to know since the vote is secret, have arrived from the States.

The Council of the EU had conspired to arrive with a single candidate for the meeting with Parliament and for its decision to be practically decisive.

To reach an agreement, they met at one in the afternoon and the German city was the winner.

Madrid, in this institution, had fallen in the first round of voting.

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