The European Commission announced on the 8th of September that the European Union has suspended the payment of some subsidies to the Czech Agrofert group, which was previously owned by Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš but is now under the management of a trust fund, Reuters reports.
Babiš set up the trust fund in December 2025 to avoid a conflict of interest after returning to the post of prime minister. Giving up his business interests was a prerequisite for Babiš to lead the government.
The EC has indicated that the politician has not sufficiently severed ties with the agricultural conglomerate, and its spokesman said that the EC believes that the Czech Prime Minister is in a situation of potential conflict of interest in relation to the management of cohesion policy and agricultural funds, and the trust fund created by Babiš does not sufficiently eliminate the situation.
Agrofert brings together hundreds of companies in the agricultural, chemical and other sectors, and has so far received millions of euros from EU subsidy funds for farmers, as well as other types of support. An EC spokesman said
the EU decision to suspend payments does not apply to payments that are automatically granted to farmers.
Agrofert is the largest Czech agricultural group, managing about 130,000 hectares of land. Babiš shrugged off the EU decision. He said he no longer owns Agrofert, never will, and he does not benefit from it.
The Czech agricultural support manager SZIF announced on the 7th of September that the EC had suspended payments of three million euros. Agrofert, which is also one of the largest fertilizer producers in Europe, said it had met all the requirements.
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