The European Parliament’s Committee on Budgetary Control on Wednesday 26 May endorsed a draft resolution proposed by Monika Hohlmeier (EPP, Germany) (26 votes in favour, none against and 4 abstentions) calling on the European Commission to resolve the conflict of interest involving Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš (see EUROPE 12722/9).
Above all, MEPs want any alleged violation of the Rule of law to be investigated and, if confirmed, the conditionality mechanism on respect for the Rule of law to be activated.
MEPs regret the Czech government’s lack of initiative to address the conflict of interest and are concerned about political pressure on the independent Czech media.
The draft resolution mentions “serious doubts” about the independence of the Czech authorities responsible for distributing direct agricultural payments.
The Committee condemns the practice of withdrawing projects from EU funding and financing them through the national budget when the Commission’s auditors detect irregularities. MEPs demand that the companies in the Agrofert group pay back all subsidies unlawfully received from the EU and that the European Commission stop paying EU funds to companies controlled by Mr Babiš or other members of the Czech government until the cases of conflict of interest are fully resolved.
MEPs find it unacceptable that the Czech Prime Minister was, and still is, actively involved in EU Council negotiations on the EU budget and programmes while continuing to receive agricultural payments through the Agrofert group of companies. “No minister, member or representative of a national government shall participate in negotiations while affected by a conflict of interest”, say MEPs.
The draft resolution criticises the length of the EU audit process, the contradictory procedures and the financial correction procedures that have been going on for several years.
The plenary vote on this text (https://bit.ly/3hVh8GY ) will take place in June (7-10 June). (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)