On Tuesday 26 March, the European Parliament called on the European Commission to “conduct an in-depth investigation” into the conflict of interest of Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš and to “take immediate and firm action” in the light of the results of its investigation.
This is one of the requests of MEPs, who decided (349 votes in favour, 158 against and 3 abstentions) to give a discharge to the Commission in respect of the implementation of the 2017 EU budget.
The European Commissioner for the Budget, Günther Oettinger, said that the Commission services were assessing the results of the investigations carried out in Prague. On 15 April, the Commission will make a full report on the audits and draw initial conclusions.
False allegations made against IMG. By adopting (449 votes in favour, 152 against and 26 abstentions) the report by Inés Ayala Sender (S&D, Spain) accompanying the discharge decision, the Parliament notes that, in its judgment of 31 January 2019 in the International Management Group (IMG) case, the EU Court of Justice annulled two Commission decisions that sanctioned the IMG group. The Parliament claims financial compensation for IMG for the damage caused. In addition, MEPs regret that in its investigation of IMG, OLAF exceeded its powers.
In addition, the Parliament postponed its decision on the discharge to the Secretary-General of the Council of the EU on the implementation of the 2017 budget of the European Council and the Council of the EU. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)