Race for the seat of European Anti-Money Laundering Authority to the last meters. Rome struggles in the run-up

Brussels – The race to be assigned the seat of the European Anti-Money Laundering Authority is in the home stretch, and Italy’s hopes—while not yet dashed— are becoming increasingly faint. With only 15 days until public hearings in Brussels for the nine candidate cities to host the headquarters of the new EU body to coordinate
the fight against terrorist financing, Italian sources warn that Rome’s bid is not particularly strong in comparison to other cities in the running such as Frankfurt, Brussels, and Vienna.

“As requested by the co-legislators, we have prepared a factual assessment of all nine applications, which was submitted to the parliament and the council on January 10,” the EU executive lets Eunews know about the process of selecting the future seat of the European Anti-Money Laundering and Anti-Terrorist Financing Authority. The next expected step at the institutional level—after the procedural item on the agenda scheduled at Thursday’s (Jan. 18) meeting of the permanent representatives of the Twenty-seven—is precisely that of the public hearings for all applicants planned by the EU Parliament and Council for Jan. 30. In the next two weeks the Italian government will have to try to play its last trump card, since to date, Rome’s candidacy does not appear to have the best chance of success.

Yet—according to the assessment of the EU Commission—Rome would have the potential to host the headquarters of the European Anti-Money Laundering Authority. The EU executive has given a positive assessment to the questions of whether the Authority could “fully carry out its tasks and powers,” should the Italian capital be chosen, as well as to “recruit highly qualified and specialized staff,” to “provide adequate training opportunities for AML/CFT prevention activities,” and to “enable close cooperation with EU institutions, bodies and agencies.” According to Italy’s proposal, there are two buildings in which the European Anti-Money Laundering Authority could be established in Rome, both in the Eur district: one is in the Torri Eur complex (on Viale America), while the second is in Via Benedetto Croce.

Appointment of the seat of the new authority involves meeting five main criteria: date of operation after the Regulation comes into force, accessibility of the place, existence of adequate educational facilities for employees’ children, adequate access to the labour market, social security and medical care for both children and spouses, and geographical balance. Regarding this last criterion, Italy currently hosts two decentralized agencies, namely the European Training Foundation (ETF) in Turin and the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) in Parma. Besides Rome, the other cities vying to host the headquarters of the European AML Authority are Vienna, Brussels, Paris, Frankfurt, Dublin, Riga, Vilnius, and Madrid.