The European Parliament on Wednesday 15 January in Strasbourg again called for action to put an end to the potential conflict of interest involving Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš, who is alleged to have made money from EU agricultural and cohesion funds (see EUROPE 12393/5).
Parliament will adopt a resolution in February on the “reopening of proceedings against the Czech Prime Minister for misuse of EU funds and potential conflict of interest”.
MEPs used the debate to call for the adoption of the proposal on protecting the EU budget against violations of the rule of law and the rapid establishment of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office, the first independent and decentralised public prosecutor's office in the EU.
On behalf of the Commission, Commissioner Virginijus Sinkevičius promised zero tolerance for fraud and recalled the actions taken on the allegations of potential conflict of interest involving the Czech Prime Minister. He assured that no structural funds will be paid for projects concerned by these allegations of misuse of EU funds. “We will not reimburse the Czech authorities for any projects that may be involved”, the Commissioner assured. According to him, the problems have had “no impact on the European budget”.
Nikolina Brnjac, on behalf of the Croatian Presidency of the EU Council, took the view that the EU Council could not comment on an ongoing judicial inquiry.
The Commissioner recalled that audits had been carried out in the country in January and February 2019 on agricultural funds, the ERDF and the European Social Fund (ESF).
The non-final report was sent to the Czech authorities on the ERDF and ESF. “The contents of this report will remain confidential until the Commission has taken a final decision”, he said.
On the rural development surveys, the Commission provided its preliminary findings. The procedure is under way and a bilateral meeting will be held with the Czech authorities.
“It can take up to 24 months to implement corrective actions”, said Mr Sinkevičius. He recalled that the Czech authorities had recovered rural development funds after the OLAF investigation at the end of 2017.
Tomáš Zdechovský (EPP, Czech Republic) regretted that no investigation had been launched against the Czech Prime Minister.
According to Lara Wolters (S&D, the Netherlands), contrary to what Mr Babiš claims, there is no anti-democratic plot against him. The audit report shows that the Czech leader is in a clear conflict of interest “because he is using European taxpayers’ money to serve his own business interests”. She called on the Commission to ensure that misused funds are reimbursed, and she defended, as others have, the new rule of law mechanism in the framework of the new 2021-2027 Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF).
Dita Charanzová (Renew Europe, Czech Republic) deplored a debate that was not based on solid facts. “Personal animosity” seems to prevail, she said. A Czech political debate should not be transposed to the European level, she warned. “The Czech judicial system works”, she said, regretting that this debate had taken place in the European Parliament.
Viola von Cramon-Taubadel (Greens/EFA, Germany) called for clear rules on conflict of interest and personal assets, otherwise the corrupt system will continue. She described him as “an oligarch who got rich on the back of” EU funds.
Ivan David (ID, Czech Republic) said the EU system “allows corruption”.
Younous Omarjee (GUE/NGL, France) stressed the need to work for the budgetary independence of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office in the fight against corruption. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)