Madrid, Mar 4 (EFE) institutional declaration unanimously approved last Tuesday.
With this, the Madrid City Council requests the Government of the nation to take the appropriate steps before the European institutions to formalize and defend this candidacy, as announced by the City Council in a statement.
The agreement also urges the Community of Madrid to promote this candidacy, since the establishment in Madrid of this body “is a great opportunity because it will help to strengthen the image of Spain as a benchmark in the fight against money laundering and of Madrid as an international institutional and economic model”.
According to the institutional declaration, the choice of the city of Madrid “would make it possible to attract talent and increase economic activity, reinforcing Madrid’s position as the institutional headquarters and economic pole in Europe”, for which reason it urges the whole of civil society to be invited to join the candidacy.
The forecast is that the decision will be adopted during this financial year and that the headquarters will be operational in 2024, adds the consistory.
Likewise, the text argues that “Spain is, at this moment, one of the best qualified countries in the world in its systems of prevention and prosecution against money laundering and is thus recognized in the ‘Mutual Evaluation Report’ carried out to Spain by the International Financial Action Task Force (GAFI)”.
Spain also has “a wide range of high-quality services for economic operators and a fully consolidated economic and financial ecosystem, with high solvency, security and strength to respond to the challenges and constant changes that our society faces”.
Specifically, “the city of Madrid meets exceptional technical, geographical, demographic, labor, social and cultural conditions to make it worthy of becoming the headquarters of the new European Authority”, the document states.
Among them, “a state-of-the-art digital and transport infrastructure and one of the best public transport networks in Europe”, to which is added “a wide range of university training and business schools that make it one of the main poles of talent from the entire European continent”.
To this is added “a unanimous institutional support at all levels: state, regional and local and the solid support of business and sectoral associations, professional associations, as well as professionals from multiple sectors”.
The Council of the European Union agreed in June 2022 to create said European Authority and, the following October, the mayor, José Luis Martínez-Almeida, announced the decision to present Madrid’s candidacy.
In addition, it will be “an agency with growth prospects, with an initial estimate of 250 workers”, which will attract a high volume of business.