The Member States’ ambassadors to the EU (Coreper) approved, on Wednesday 27 September, a letter to the European Commission confirming that it can launch the call for applications to host the seat of the future European Anti-Money Laundering Authority (AMLA), if the European Parliament also confirms this.
This letter follows a discussion held on Wednesday 20 September between the EU Council and the Parliament with a view to agreeing on the next steps in the AMLA seat selection procedure. According to a European source contacted on Wednesday, “the co-legislators confirmed their willingness to conclude this file under the current legislature” (see EUROPE 13217/17).
The letter includes the text of the call for applications and details of the application procedure, including the selection criteria, the application template to be used by Member States and the technical specifications for the seat of the AMLA.
“In the interest of time, the co-legislators and the Commission agreed to launch the call for applications without delay”, the source added. The co-legislators had in fact asked the Commission to establish an application procedure (see EUROPE 13182/2). According to a second European source, also contacted on Wednesday, the application process should begin shortly, by the end of the week. The candidate cities currently declared are: Paris, Frankfort, Vienna, Vilnius, Madrid, Dublin, Brussels, Rome and Luxembourg. Amsterdam was also on the list, but the Netherlands eventually dropped out.
However, the objective criteria established by the co-legislators several months ago are being called into question by certain Member States. The EU Council, under German pressure, wants to review certain criteria, according to Stéphanie Yon-Courtin (Renew Europe, French), Vice-Chair and coordinator of the European Parliament’s Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON), contacted by EUROPE on Tuesday 26 September.
She explained that one of the criteria currently being contested was the inclusion of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) rating. The FATF has set up an evaluation system between its members that rates the technical compliance and effectiveness of national financial intelligence units.
“This rating is not very good for the Germans”, stressed Ms Yon-Courtin (see EUROPE 13009/19, 13194/19). According to the second European source, Austria and the Baltic States are also contesting this criterion.
For the MEP, on the other hand, France believes that “it still has every chance of being able to host the AMLA”. Paris hosts the seat for both the FATF and the European Banking Authority (EBA), and is rated highly by the FATF. “We realise that with Brexit, Paris is a very attractive place to be, so it could be useful for it to be Paris in terms of complementarity”, commented Ms Yon-Courtin.
In her opinion, it is also a question of “a game of musical chairs” between France and Spain. If the French support the candidacy of the Spanish Finance Minister, Nadia Calviño, for the presidency of the EIB (see EUROPE 13254/24), Madrid could then reciprocate by supporting the French candidacy.
To read the letter from the EU Council: https://aeur.eu/f/8rr (Original version in French by Anne Damiani)