The European Commission has agreed to help co-legislators determine the location of the future ‘AMLA’ anti-money laundering authority, according to a letter from Commission Vice-President Maroš Šefčovič and Commissioner for Financial Services Mairead McGuinness on Monday 8 May. In April, the Council of the EU and the European Parliament requested the European Commission’s assistance, asking it to act as an ‘honest broker’ in objectively and substantively evaluating bids for the AMLA headquarters (see EUROPE 13175/10).
In its response - which was obtained by EUROPE - the European Commission “welcomes the request from both co-legislators for assistance with the swift selection of the seat and stands ready to play its role in a spirit of mutual sincere cooperation”. The institution says that it has not identified any additional criteria to those set out in the texts and is ready to host informal technical discussions, in parallel with the interinstitutional negotiations which began on Thursday 11 May.
Regarding some of the criteria added by Parliament, such as the “quality of the national anti-money laundering framework” in the applicant Member State, the Commission said it was ready to examine them, for example on the basis of the mutual evaluation reports of the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF).
The Commission annexed to its letter the joint common approach on the criteria for the selection of the seat of the AMLA, the technical specifications of the AMLA as well as a proposed procedure for the application of Member States wishing to host the AMLA.
The first criterion concerns the date on which the AMLA can become operational after the entry into force of the Regulation. This includes the availability of appropriate office premises and the capacity to host relevant staff. Approximately 10,000 square metres of floor space will be required, as well as a parking area. The application should provide information on the timeline for availability of the premises and the estimated time needed for fit-out and adaptations works.
When the Regulation comes into force, AMLA will have 250 members, but will gradually increase to 400 members. This will take into account the future development of the mandate and the staff.
The second criterion concerns the accessibility of the site, particularly in terms of public transport.
The following criteria relate to the well-being of the families and spouses of future employees. The selected city must have adequate educational facilities for the children of the staff. It will also need to provide appropriate access to the labour market, social security and medical care.
The final criterion is geographical balance. The EU needs to ensure a good distribution of seats in its bodies and agencies.
So far, six cities have already been proposed by their respective Member States: Paris, Frankfurt, Madrid, Vienna, Vilnius and Luxembourg (see EUROPE 13078/6).
To read the letter: https://aeur.eu/f/6vx (Original version in French by Anne Damiani)