So Nobody can really be lured out of their reserve. Anyone who collects votes in the Frankfurt financial center for the upcoming award of the European anti-money laundering authority will encounter a lot of hope, praise for the city's application, but also uncertainty. Meanwhile, no one wants to make a prediction about how the election will turn out.
When deciding where the Anti-Money Laundering Authority, or AMLA for short, and its probably around 400 employees will be based in the future, Frankfurt is one of the favorites among experts, alongside the French capital Paris and the Spanish capital Madrid. But there are considerable doubts as to whether Frankfurt will emerge as the winner from the nine applicants.
There is a danger, say people from the region familiar with the selection process, that the decision is primarily politically motivated. The awarding of EU institutions is usually not just about content and arguments, but also about agreements and proportional representation – i.e. things that the applicant cities themselves and those who have personally committed themselves can hardly influence.
With the European Central Bank (ECB), which has been based in Frankfurt since 1998 and which former Chancellor Helmut Kohl is said to have personally guided to Frankfurt in 1992, the city already has an extremely important EU authority that employs around 5,000 people. At the hearing for the AMLA award at the beginning of February, a Spanish EU parliamentarian promptly pointed out that the balance in awarding EU organizations was against the Hessian metropolis.
Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP), who supported Frankfurt at the hearing, sees it differently. Firstly, he believes that Germany is “not in the front row” when it comes to EU institutions. And secondly, he considers the proximity to the ECB to be a central argument for locating the authority on the Main.
ECB, airport, internationality
This perspective is one of the main pillars in Frankfurt's application. Ultimately, the ECB supervises those banks that are also being looked at by the AMLA; some employees from the central bank could even move to the AMLA – and then stay in Frankfurt. The second core argument for Frankfurt is the airport, which is not only easy to reach from the city center, but from which many destinations around the world can be flown to in a short time. In the 100-page application document, Frankfurt also flirts with its internationality: In the city there are 965 doctors, 2,313 lawyers and 266 tax advisors who speak English, and reference is also made to the international schools in the region.
All of this sounds good and has convinced many EU politicians, they say. But is that enough? In 2017, Frankfurt had to experience what it means to come away empty-handed when awarding an EU institution, at the European banking regulator EBA. At that time, the financial center also considered itself a favorite because of its proximity to the European Central Bank and its transport connections, but the decision was between Dublin and Paris.
Frankfurt has learned from mistakes
Apparently the city, state and federal government have learned from the mistakes made back then. After all, the analysis at the time said that there had been too little support for Frankfurt's application from Berlin in particular. Firstly, because exploratory talks for a new government were currently underway; secondly, because Germany applied for the European Medicines Agency (EMA) at the same time as Bonn, which ultimately went to Amsterdam. This double application, criticized the then Prime Minister Volker Bouffier (CDU), had “not exactly strengthened” the location.
The EU Commission had previously complained that Frankfurt had not been prepared to provide office space. This time it's different: Frankfurt doesn't just have ready-to-move-in office space: in “Tower 185” at the trade fair, in “Flow” in the Gateway Gardens district and in the trade fair tower. In Brussels, Lindner also quickly doubled the public funding for setting up the AMLA from ten to 20 million euros, which will be used, among other things, to cover the rent for the authority in the first few years.
AMLA settlement could create a pull effect
Overall, the managing director of the Frankfurt Main Finance financial center initiative, Hubertus Väth, praises the fact that the federal government, city and state have acted together in an exemplary manner. This must set a precedent – even if Frankfurt loses. Months before, all political levels had exerted their influence to present a unified picture. That seems to make a lot of sense, after all, more than 400 jobs are at stake for Frankfurt: The image of the financial center is also at stake, because – all observers and applicants agree – the location of such an important authority has a pull effect which can attract more banks, law firms and consultancies to the city.
The meeting in Brussels begins on Thursday at 6 p.m. Nobody knows exactly when the decision will be made in the evening. But this is just one of the many uncertainties when applying for AMLA.
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