The European Commission may be in a position to ask Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš to repay €17.4 million of EU structural funds on the grounds that he is in a conflict of interest, Czech media reported on Saturday 1 June (see EUROPE 12151/20). These media have published a document presented as a draft Commission audit report in this case, which embarrasses the Czech leader.
According to this 70-page document, the Commission considers that Mr Babiš continues to profit from his agri-food holding company Agrofert. The document is published by the information portals seznam.cz, Aktualne.cz and Denikn.cz. On Friday 31 May, the Czech daily Hospodarske Noviny stated that the Commission had concluded after its audit that there was a conflict of interest between Mr Babiš' political activities and his affairs citing “two sources within Czech ministries”.
According to the newspaper, the latter must reimburse all subsidies from the EU structural funds received by Agrofert since February 2017.
The Commission refused to comment on the case on Monday 3 June. The institution refrains from commenting on ongoing audit procedures and even less on leaks.
For his part, Mr Babiš denied on Friday the news of the daily Hospodarske Noviny.
“The Czech Republic will certainly not be obliged to repay the subsidies. There is no reason for this, as I am not violating either Czech or European legislation on conflict of interest”, he explained.
Mr Babiš officially transferred Agrofert to trust funds in 2017 to avoid a conflict of interest. But the Commission considers that “"Mr Babiš was the settlor and sole beneficiary of these trust funds”, according to the document published by the media. “The two main objectives of the trust funds are the administration of the Agrofert group and the protection of Mr Babiš' interests”, the document states. “Mr Babiš [...] therefore has a direct economic interest in the success of the Agrofert group”, according to the document.
At the end of March, the European Parliament called on the Commission to “carry out an in-depth investigation” into Andrej Babiš's conflict of interest and to “take firm action without delay” in the light of the results of its investigation (see EUROPE 12222/15). (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)