Although the current president of the Ecofin Council, France’s Bruno Le Maire, did not want to open the discussion on the seat of the AMLA, several European finance ministers highlighted their countries’ assets to host the future European authority to fight money laundering and terrorist financing, during a ministerial debate in Luxembourg on Friday 17 June.
Carsten Pillath, the German State Secretary, launched the debate with a lengthy presentation of his arguments for Frankfurt to be designated. “It is an important financial centre with unparalleled geographical accessibility and a high quality of life. It has a unique and first-class talent pool”, Pillath said.
For her part, Luxembourg Minister Yuriko Backes advocated that the AMLA should be established near the EU Court of Justice and the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO), which are located in Luxembourg.
Without developing arguments, other EU countries, such as Latvia and Lithuania, ironically pointed out that their capitals were also “pretty cities”.
Nadia Calviño from Spain, closing the debate, stressed the need for a “fair and transparent procedure” to designate the seat of the AMLA.
As the debate is expected to be lively, the European Parliament’s co-rapporteurs wish to establish important criteria for resolving this issue (see EUROPE 12972/23).
In addition to this question of the seat, there was consensus on the importance of this authority. “AMLA should become operational as soon as possible. It is important to ensure that its resources will be proportional to the task, required in order to ensure appropriate calibration and be able to deliver,” stressed Ms Backes.
Lithuanian Minister Mindaugas Liutvinskas referred to the AMLA framework, which he said should cover entities on a “risk-based approach”.
“Significant effort is being put into the design of the AMLA, which is critical because the authority will reshape the anti-money laundering framework”, said EU Financial Services Commissioner Mairead McGuinness.
The French Presidency hopes that the EU Council will be able to agree a negotiating position with the European Parliament by the end of June.
This issue is related to other legislative proposals with an impact on the fight against money laundering that are currently being negotiated, in particular the regulation of crypto-assets. “We have seen recently how important effective implementations on our sanctions, beneficial ownership transparency and crypto-assets are”, noted McGuinness.
According to Le Maire, the French Presidency hopes to reach an agreement with the Parliament by the end of the semester on the revision of the Remittances Directive (see EUROPE 12942/23) and on the regulation of crypto-assets (MiCA) (see EUROPE 12968/2). (Original version in French by Anne Damiani)