The future location of the European Authority for Countering Terrorism Funding and Money Laundering has been agreed upon by representatives of the European Parliament and the Council. With about 400 employees, AMLA Headquarters will have its headquarters in Frankfurt and start operating in the middle of 2025.
An essential component of the EU’s reform initiatives pertaining to anti-money laundering laws is this authority. AMLA Headquarters will have the power to oversee required entities directly and indirectly, as well as to impose penalties and take action.
The Council and the Parliament worked together to establish a transparent, equitable, and fair selection process for all candidate locations, and this culminated in the choice on AMLA Headquarters’ seat location.
During an informal inter-institutional political conference, representatives of the Parliament and the Council voted simultaneously to determine the final site of AMLA Headquarters, with each co-legislator receiving 27 votes. The designated site shall be formally ratified in the AMLA Headquarters rule.
According to background information, on July 20, 2021, the Commission proposed a legislative package with the goal of bolstering EU anti-money laundering and counterterrorism financing regulations. A provisional agreement was achieved by the Council and the Parliament on December 13, 2023, regarding a rule that included the creation of a new EU anti-money laundering authority.
Furthermore, it was decided that the EU legislative has the power to choose where the European Medicines Agency and the European Labor Authority are located in light of the rulings rendered by the EU Court of Justice on July 14, 2022. This decision must be made in accordance with the protocols specified in the pertinent Treaty provisions, including the regular legislative procedure.
The Parliament, Council, and Commission convened to decide on a selection process for AMLA Headquarters, the first organization to be founded following the aforementioned rulings. The co-legislators decided on common standards for choosing AMLA Headquarters’ seat in June 2023. The Commission then issued a call for applications on September 28, 2023, with member states having until November 10, 2023, to submit their proposals.
Nine member states—Belgium (Frankfurt), Ireland (Dublin), Spain (Madrid), France (Paris), Italy (Rome), Latvia (Riga), Lithuania (Vilnius), and Austria (Vienna)—submitted applications to host AMLA Headquarters. These candidates’ eligibility was assessed by the Commission, and the results were made public in January 2024.
The notion of holding joint public hearings to enable representatives of candidate states to present their applications was agreed upon by the co-legislators. Every application was evaluated in accordance with the call for applications’ specified selection criteria, the data submitted by candidates on their application forms, the Commission’s evaluation of those forms, and the results of the joint public hearings. The location was decided by a vote among the co-legislators after this evaluation.
