MEPs: Czech PM Babis can't be in budget talks

By ESZTER ZALAN
BRUSSELS, TODAY, 07:03
HTtps://euobserver.com/political/148298

Czech prime minister Andrej Babis should not take part in the negotiations on the next seven-year EU budget because of his potential conflict of interests and possible misuse of EU funds, MEPs said Wednesday (7 May).

MEPs on the European Parliament's budget control committee overseeing the spending of EU funds said Babis should "fully resolve" his potential conflict of interests before participating in budget talks.

If the conflict of interest is confirmed, MEPs said that Babis, a billionaire tycoon, should sell his business interests, stop receiving any public subsidies including EU funds, or step down as prime minister.

Babis is under scrutiny over millions of euros of EU funds paid to Agrofert, a food, farming, chemicals and media conglomerate he owned, and whose ownership he transferred to two trust funds in 2017.

The EU commission and its fraud agency have been investigating, and according to leaked reports last year the EU executive confirmed the conflict of interest. Babis has denied any wrongdoing.

MEPs on Wednesday in a report summed up their mission to Prague in February to find out about how authorities protect EU funds.

"Mr Babis should not be involved in the next MFF [budget] negotiations," MEP Monika Hohlmeier, the chair of the committee, stated.

Hohlmeier said their concerns have "probably got a little deeper rather being alleviated in any way" with every meeting on the mission.

"The suspensions that we had going to Prague were substantiated, and we have quite a lot of worries that money is not reaching where it should reach," MEP Daniel Freund said.

"We have the extraordinary situation in the Czech Republic that the prime minister is the biggest beneficiary of EU funds in the country, that is a situation we need to resolve as quickly as possible," the German MEP added.

He said it was a matter of regret that the Czech government still had not replied to the commission's audit, while the conflict of interest continues to exist unchecked.

Freund said the commission should come out with the finalised audit report as quickly as possible.

He argued that EU leaders should enforce EU rules and refuse to sit down with Babis to negotiate the budget.

The MEPs' report calls for a better control in the Czech Republic on the conflict of interest - which is currently only based on a 'declaration of honour' with no follow-up.

MEPs said they found "oligarchic structures are fostered by an opaque system of dispersed control and lack of overview and responsibility for conflicts of interest."

The MEPs also highlighted the Czech court of auditors' limited competences, arguing it needs to be able to perform systematic on-the-spot checks of final beneficiaries.

"No government body was able to tell us who is exactly in charge of investigating these conflicts," MEP Sandor Ronai said.

Babis and the agriculture minister Miroslav Toman cancelled their meeting with the delegation.


Police protection in Prague

The MEPs Prague trip saw them subject to personal attacks.

"I have never been so aggressively attacked by a prime minister [Babis] or had that be the case for colleagues," Hohlmeier said.

"It went as far as colleagues needing police protection. I have never seen this in any other member state," she said.

Babis, whose ANO party belongs to the liberal Renew group, labelled as traitors Czech members of the mission, MEP Tomas Zdechovsky from centre-right EPP and Mikulas Peksa from the Greens.

In its budget proposal, the commission proposed linking the disbursement of EU funds to the rule of law and the sound implementation of EU spending.

But the commission has been traditionally reluctant to shame governments that oversee misuse of EU funds.