Italian Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti nominated Italy as the seat of the European Anti-Money Laundering Authority (AMLA) during a bilateral conversation held today in Brussels with Mairead McGuinness, the EU Commissioner for Financial Services, Financial Stability and Capital Markets Union.
The meeting took place alongside today's Ecofin meeting, which focused on the agenda of the Swedish-led EU presidency's six-month term, but also on the measures to boost European industry's competitiveness and investment in response to the US Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).
During his speech at the meeting with EU finance ministers, Mr. Giorgetti emphasised that for Italy, “simply loosening State aid rules is not a solution, because it would be disproportionate to benefit Member States with a larger budget margin, thus exacerbating economic divergences within the Union and leading to a fragmentation of the internal market.”
“It is fine to respond to the IRA, but we should beware of shooting ourselves in the foot in Europe. We need common rules. We should be careful not to replicate,” added Minister Giorgetti, “the same dynamics of fierce competition that the IRA has brought about between the US and Europe. I would also like to point out that a number of common projects, such as the IPCEI, demonstrate the importance of European development paths for the technological innovation industry. Thanks also to spill-over effects, all Member States would benefit directly or indirectly from these funds. We could leverage the effectiveness of common instruments such as Next Generation EU and SURE, which can be successfully replicated in the context of the current crisis.”
“We hope that all these issues can be discussed in depth in the coming weeks,” concluded the Minister, “including at the next European Council and in view of the debate on the reform of European governance. In conclusion, I would like to say that the EIB is well positioned.”