The Czechia has to pay for Babiš. Due to his conflict of interests, Brussels imposed a fine on Prague
The European Commission has fined the Czech Republic more than 85 million crowns for errors in agricultural subsidies. It also includes sanctions for conflicts of interest of former Prime Minister Andrej Babiš (YES). The Czech Republic has to pay about 1.1 million crowns for this specific mistake. Babiš said that he could not comment on the matter because he did not know the details and did not have information that the document related to him in any way. He reiterated that, in general, he had never had a conflict of interest. Holding Agrofert, which Babiš invested in trust funds, is convinced that it acted in accordance with Czech and EU rules.
“I can confirm that the Commission’s implementing decision for the audit inquiry, which has been running since 2019, has been published. The implementing decision informs about the exclusion of certain expenditures. Part of the excluded expenses is the provided subsidy for a project solved due to a conflict of interests, “Luďka Raimondová, the head of the press department of the State Agricultural Intervention Fund (SAIF), told the server.
“I do not know the details, nor do I have information that (the document) applies to me. Therefore, I cannot comment on it. In general, I have never had any conflict of interest and there are final decisions in the Czech Republic. I have never been part of audits regarding conflicts of interest and European auditors have never approached me, “Babiš said in a statement.
The Czechia may sue the decision before the Court of Justice of the EU within two months. For example, this year the Ministry of Agriculture did so in the case of a fine of 1.15 billion crowns, which the EC imposed for almost five years old errors in the distribution of subsidies. “The fund has developed variants of the next possible procedure. He now expects the approval of a specific variant, which will continue, “said Raimondová about the new sanction.
An audit of Babiš’s conflict of interest appeared in the Czech Republic at the beginning of 2019. The former prime minister has long denied the mistakes. Agrofert said today that no proceedings had taken place for the company. “This is an audit of the Czech Republic, not of Agrofert. That is why we did not receive any decisions and we only have information from the media, “said Agrofert spokesman Pavel Heřmanský.
Due to the audit, SZFI suspended the projects of Agrofert’s subsidiaries for about half a billion crowns. European subsidies were supposed to cover about two-fifths of the cost. The company sees no reason to return the subsidies. “We must strongly oppose the fact that the sanction is caused by the actions of our companies, and I believe that the Czech Republic will defend against this decision in court. As previously announced by SAIF, it has stopped the payment of subsidies to the Agrofert group company, so it is not clear to us how the sanction could be imposed for projects that have been suspended, “added Heřmanský.
The European Commission has already conducted several proceedings with the Czech Republic. In April 2007, for example, it fined the Czech Republic 12.3 million euros (about 350 million crowns at a time) for super pre-accession stocks of some agricultural and food products. In June 2013, the Court of Justice of the European Union fined the Czech Republic 250,000 euros (about 6.5 million crowns) for late transposing the European Union directive on employee pension insurance. Advocate General Niilo Jääskinen originally proposed a fine, the European Commission demands a fine of up to 3.4 million euros.
On the contrary, in August 2018, the European Commission decided that the Czech Republic would not pay a fine due to a possible conflict of interest in the Supervisory Board of the State Agricultural Intervention Fund (SAIF) of MP Jaroslav Faltýn (YES) and former deputies Ladislav Velebný (ČSSD) and Petr Kudela (KDU-ČSL). Originally, there was a threat of returning about 22 million crowns, which the commission wanted the Czech Republic.
In September of the same year, the Czech Republic succeeded in proceedings before the Court of Justice of the EU in a dispute of approximately 55 million crowns. The court annulled the EC decision from 2015, according to which the Czechia had to return the subsidy of EUR 2,123.199 (55 million). The reason for repaying the subsidy was the erroneous payment of money from agricultural funds to winemakers to protect vineyards from game and birds.