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The European Commission said Monday it won’t claim any money back from Andrej Babiš’ business empire even though the Czech prime minister breached conflict of interest rules.
On Friday, the European Commission published the results of a years-long audit into subsidies granted to the Agrofert agricultural conglomerate, which was founded by Babiš. It concluded he still controlled the business and the disbursement of the subsidies, despite having put his assets into trusts when he became PM. As a result, Babiš was found to be in violation of the EU’s Conflict of Interests Act.
Asked about the financial consequences of the findings at a press briefing on Monday, a Commission spokesperson said Czech authorities never requested any EU money in connection to the activities mentioned in the audit. Therefore, “we haven’t made any payments on those operations” and “there’s nothing to recover,” the spokesperson said.
The spokesperson added, however, that the Czech government still needed to implement four recommendations issued by the Commission “to essentially enhance compliance” for dispersing funds.
It is expected that Babiš’ company will still have to repay the subsidies to the Czech state.
Czech MEPs from the European People’s Party (EPP) spoke of €6.3 million of taxpayers’ money that the state should recover, while some media reports said the figure was as high as €11 million. The Commission spokesperson declined to comment on the sum involved, saying it is “a matter for the Czech authorities.”
A Czech government spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.
Czech EPP lawmaker Tomáš Zdechovský said the repayment of subsidies was necessary following the audit report, but the “even more severe conclusion” was the conflict of interest because “Babiš’ position as a prime minister provides him with the possibility to exercise influence on the allocation of EU funds.”
On Monday afternoon, the EPP agreed to demand a parliamentary debate on this issue for next month, although it will likely still need support from other political groups for the request to go ahead.
The EPP also said it wants to stop the disbursement of further funds to the country.
The Commission said, however, that it is not considering such an option. “Findings of the audit report do not have an impact on any other payment operations between the Commission and the Czech authorities,” the spokesperson said.
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