According to a document obtained by EUROPE, the Council of the EU and the European Parliament have asked the European Commission to intervene to determine the seat of the future ‘AMLA’ anti-money laundering authority.
Following a briefing on the AMLA seat selection procedure on Wednesday 26 April, the Swedish Presidency has drafted a letter to the Commission and is inviting the Member States’ ambassadors to the EU (Coreper) to validate it.
In line with the EU Court of Justice’s ruling that the decision on where to locate an entity’s headquarters rests with the EU co-legislators (see EUROPE 12993/22), the Presidency proposed that Parliament send a joint letter inviting the Commission to help them define objective criteria. However, according to the Presidency, Parliament chose to proceed separately by writing directly to the Commissioner for Financial Services, Mairead McGuinness.
The Presidency asked the Commission to act as an “honest broker”, evaluating offers for the AMLA seat in an objective and reasoned manner. It also urged the Commission to “work as a matter of priority on the definition of objective and transparent criteria for the selection of the seat of AMLA, drawing on the general criteria set out in the 2012 Joint Statement and Common Approach on decentralised agencies”.
The Presidency added that the Commission could suggest additional specific and objective criteria related to the scope of AMLA’s activities that might be suitable for both co-legislators. Finally, it urged the Commission to work on a standardised application form that would be suitable for both co-legislators and by means of which all candidate Member States could submit their bids in due time.
Read the document: https://aeur.eu/f/6q5 (Original version in French by Anne Damiani)