The Diplomat
The President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, concluded yesterday a working visit to Spain in which she was received by the King, the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, and during which the Mayor of Madrid, José Luis Martínez-Almeida, presented her with the capital’s candidacy to host the European Authority to Combat Money Laundering and the Financing of Terrorism.
Metsola was received on Thursday by Pedro Sánchez at the Moncloa Complex, where they discussed the Spanish Presidency of the Council of the European Union, which will take place during the second half of 2023, or the negotiations on the Pact on Migration and Asylum. They also shared the importance of the twenty-seven countries maintaining unity in their support for Ukraine in the face of Russian aggression.
Yesterday, the President of the European Parliament met with Albares, with whom she also talked about the Spanish Presidency of the EU, “a country project” in which “Spain will project its leadership for Europe to move forward”, according to the Minister in his official Twitter account.
Likewise, Roberta Metsola was received in audience by King Felipe VI, with whom she discussed matters related to the current state of European geopolitics, including political, economic and defense relations between the countries that make up the European Union.
The meeting was attended by the Secretary of State for the European Union, Pascual Ignacio Navarro Ríos; the Director General for Integration and Coordination of General Affairs of the European Union; Salvador Rueda Rabanal; and the Spokesman of the European Parliament and Director General for Communication; Jaime Duch Guillot.
“It is an honor to meet again with King Felipe VI, today in Madrid, and discuss the challenges facing Europe and the world,” Metsola stated on his Twitter account. “His 2015 speech to the European Parliament remains relevant: ‘Europe has been built on the will to add, not to subtract. Of uniting and not dividing,'” she recalled.
On the other hand, the President of the European Parliament was received by the Mayor of Madrid, José Luis Martínez-Almeida. In the meeting, held at the Palacio de Cibeles, the mayor explained “the characteristics of the capital of Spain as a candidate to be the headquarters of the European Authority to Combat Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing (AMLA- Anti-Money Laundering Authority)”, according to the City Council. According to Almeida, Madrid “more than meets the requirements to host a headquarters of these characteristics”, especially in a country, Spain, which “has an enormous commitment in the fight against money laundering and a national framework that is internationally recognized”.
