ROMA – Frankfurt was chosen as the headquarters of the new Anti-Money Laundering Authority and to combat the financing of terrorism. The 27 EU states – with a secret vote within the EU Council – suggested the German city to the European Parliament, which confirmed the choice.
There were nine cities competing for the new headquarters: in addition to Frankfurt there were Rome, Brussels, Dublin, Madrid, Paris, Riga, Vilnius, Vienna.
“The Meloni government has just collected yet another defeat in Europe. What weighs heavily is Italy’s evident isolation, the result of the total inability of Meloni’s government to know how to forge alliances in negotiations with the other member states, which ended up severely penalizing Rome’s candidacy.”
“The Comedy of the Month”
Thus the Action MEPs, Fabio Massimo Castaldo and Giuseppe Ferrandino. “Despite the numerous strengths of Rome’s candidacy by virtue of the high standards of the articulated and pioneering Italian legislation on the fight against money laundering, as well as the extraordinary role played by our Financial Policethe candidacy faded due to the lack of credibility of the current executive”.
And again: “Unfortunately this is nothing new: we saw exactly the same movie with the reform of the Stability Pact. In the negotiations, previous preparation and, again, the image that the other European partners have of the candidate country is fundamental.”
“How does the government expect to win some battles after the comedy about the ratification of the ESM, topped with the unforgivable delays in the implementation of the Pnrr? Let the Italians apologize for this terrible failure, and begin to learn from their many mistakes”, conclude Castaldo and Ferrandino.
Scholz rejoices
Instead, through his profile on German Chancellor Olaf Scholz: “Frankfurt will be further strengthened as the central financial center in Europe. Thank you to everyone who worked for this: especially the state of Hesse, the city of Frankfurt, the Ministry of Finance and Christian Lindner.”
On November 13, 2023, the municipal council had approved a Memorandum of Understanding fielding 11 Italian institutions to support the candidacy of our capital. They were Rome Capital, the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, the Ministry of Economy, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Lazio Region, the Bank of Italy, the Financial Information Unit, the Guardia di Finanza, the State Property Agency, Cassa Depositi e Prestiti and Ferrovie dello Stato. But it was all in vain.