On Thursday 24 March, the European Parliament called for more robust rules to better protect EU budget funds from oligarchic groups “which use government tools or criminal practices”.
The European Parliament adopted (by 409 votes in favour, 61 against and 42 abstentions) a report by Petri Sarvamaa (EPP, Finland) on the fight against oligarchic structures.
The European Parliament calls on the European Commission to set up a standardised and interoperable EU-wide digital information and monitoring system, including ARACHNE, on the ultimate beneficiaries of EU funds.
It suggests introducing an EU-wide annual ceiling for payments to an individual. When revising the EU’s financial regulation, MEPs propose to set the total annual amount per individual for agricultural funds at €500,000 for first-pillar payments (direct aid) and €1 million for second-pillar payments (rural development).
The European Parliament recalls that the Commission’s audit confirmed that Czech Prime Minister, Mr Andrej Babiš exerted his influence to allocate EU subsidies to Agrofert, an agrochemical conglomerate he founded. It points out that Mr Babiš is the beneficial owner of Agrofert and that the conflict of interest is therefore, “obvious”. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)