Frankfurt wins over Madrid and takes over the headquarters of the European Anti-Money Laundering Agency

Along with these two cities, other European cities also aspired to it: Rome (Italy), Vienna (Austria), Vilnius (Lithuania), Riga (Latvia), Dublin (Ireland), Paris (France) and Brussels (Belgium).

Frankfurt started from the beginning as the great bet of the Member States, although Paris (France), Rome (Italy) and Vilnius (Lithuania) were also among their favourites, while the candidacy of the Spanish capital was ‘rejected’ in the first round. Was granted, as diplomatic sources indicated to Europa Press.

In this way, Madrid’s “hopes” remained from the beginning in the hands of the European Parliament, where it had the first cut along with Paris, Rome and Frankfurt, which is already the headquarters of the European Central Bank (ECB). ,

The Council and Parliament each had 27 secret ballots which they had to cast for their preferred candidate until one of the cities reached the required simple majority. The Council had one vote for each member state, while the European Parliament decided to divide them into political groups according to size.

Thus the European People’s Party had 8 votes; Social Democrats, with 6; Liberals (Renewal), with 4; Greens, with 3; the conservatives and reformists and the extreme right groups of Identity and Democracy, with 3 and 2 respectively; And the Left, by one vote.