The European Commission has decided to suspend the payment of subsidies to companies linked to Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš until it is fully convinced that the conflict of interest has been resolved, writes Politico.
Hugo Sobral, the head of the EC’s regional policy department, said in a letter written on the 20th of May that Czech authorities cannot claim subsidies for expenses incurred by companies in the Agrofert group or any other entities linked to Babiš. Sobral added that the condition will remain in place until the conflict of interest is fully resolved. Any payment request submitted by the Czech Republic must include a confirmation that the subsidy recipient is not linked to Agrofert, SynBiol, Hartenberg Holding or any other company close to Babiš.
In practice, this means that any subsidies paid to Agrofert will be covered by Czech taxpayers. The Czech Agricultural Support Agency ruled in April that the conglomerate Babiš has been able to claim subsidies from the European Union.
Babiš became Czech Prime Minister on the 9th of December last year. After allegations of a potential conflict of interest emerged,
he handed over management of Agrofert to a trust fund,
but opposition parties and NGOs have said the prime minister has not completely severed ties with his companies.
The prime minister told the Czech state news agency on the 26th of May that he had eliminated any potential conflict of interest, to a much greater extent than required by Czech and EU law. He stressed that Agrofert no longer belonged to him.
The EC has given the Czech authorities one month to provide a detailed legal analysis showing that the solutions chosen by Babiš are indeed in line with both Czech and EU law. Neither the EC nor Babiš responded to a request for comment.
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