By 569 votes to 20, with 61 abstentions, the European Parliament backed the nomination of Italian candidate Bruna Szego as Chair of the European Anti-Money Laundering Authority (AMLA) at its plenary session on Wednesday 18 December.
The Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) and Civil Liberties (LIBE) Committees had previously approved this appointment on Monday 16 December, with 103 votes in favour, 10 against and 8 abstentions. These two committees selected Ms Szego after three hours of hearings in November (see EUROPE 13533/27).
Ms Szego currently heads the anti-money laundering supervision and regulation unit at the Bank of Italy.
Based in Frankfurt, the new AMLA is responsible for coordinating the actions of national financial intelligence units and directly supervising certain high-risk financial entities present in several Member States (see EUROPE 13420/20).
To be appointed Chair of the AMLA, Ms Szego still needs the support of a qualified majority in the Council of the EU. (Original version in French by Anne Damiani)