Members of the EP Committee on Budgetary Control (CONT) voted on the resolution on the conflict of interest of the Czech Prime Minister, in the European Parliament in Brussels. The resolution, which was adopted on Wednesday, calls on the Commission to address this conflict of interest alongside reports of the Prime Minister’s influence on Czech media and the judicial system. It is thought that the former agrochemical holding of PM Babis, Agrofert and its 230 daughter companies, has received funding from the CAP in the size of 3-digit million euros during the last legislature. MEPs want any alleged rule of law breaches to be investigated and, if confirmed, they want the conditionality mechanism for the protection of the Union’s budget to be activated. Statement by Monika HOHLMEIER (EPP, DE), Rapporteur.

Brussels

statement

meeting

vote

Committee on Budgetary Control

HOHLMEIER, Monika (EPP, DE)

EU - Czechia (T)

Resolution on the conflict of interest of the Czech Prime Minister: vote in CONT committee and statement by Monika HOHLMEIER (EPP, DE), rapporteur

Title: Resolution on the conflict of interest of the Czech Prime Minister: vote in CONT committee and statement by Monika HOHLMEIER (EPP, DE), rapporteur

Atmosphere shots of the meeting, 10 shots

SOUNDBITE (English), Monika HOHLMEIER (EPP, DE), Rapporteur, The commission now really has published one of the reports, reports referring to cohesion was now published, and the debates before were based on the fact finding mission, on the revealings that were astonishing for the committees in former times, but there was no published official report. Now there is the official report. Now we expect that the Czech government and Mr Babis are reacting, and explicitly that the money is paid back. And if there has no money's been spent because a commission was very careful. We don't want that the Czech taxpayer is now paying it because the Czech taxpayer does not know it. We want to prevent that a any kind of subsidies are not distributed legally, fairly and to the profit of the vast majority of the population, not only for some oligarchs.

SOUNDBITE (English), Monika HOHLMEIER (EPP, DE), Rapporteur, You think if somebody is minister of agriculture, he cannot be one of the biggest recipients of agricultural funds and even not his son and the brother, then it must be very clear that this person is not agricultural minister or responsible and that the premier cannot be the one, with his company or with the company that where he is partly owner, just to have intermediary trust funds in between and then receiving hundreds of millions. And at the same time, we have the debate that in Czechia there is no redistribution mechanism in agriculture, for example. So no redistribution from the very big ones to the small ones, Medium-Sized ones, because Czechia, the government has decided not to redistribute.

SOUNDBITE (English), Monika HOHLMEIER (EPP, DE), Rapporteur, Agrofert, has more than 200 daughters, 230 daughters, something like this. We know that that is he has not only received subsidies in Czechia, but also in other member states. And we know, meanwhile, by our study that he's, let's be frank, one of the biggest recipients was a three digit number of subsidies in the last legislature.

SOUNDBITE (English), Monika HOHLMEIER (EPP, DE), Rapporteur, We think that subsidies of European Union and even normal taxpayers money, if it is given to Czechia, or if it is given to the European Union, should be distributed in a way that guarantees that there is a profit for a lot of persons, that there is a benefit not for oligarchs, but a benefit for small and medium sized companies, for innovation, for small and medium sized farmers.