The Czech Republic plans to sue the European Commission for suspending subsidy payments to Agrofert holding. The EC halted subsidy payments to Prime Minister Andrej Babis’ Agrofert due to his conflict of interest.
The lawsuit was approved by the government Monday. The Ministry of Agriculture says the suit is a matter of principle and disagrees with the suspension of payments. The payments are from the Rural Development Program for the last quarter of 2018 and the first quarter of 2019, amounting to almost EUR 247,000 (CZK 6.3 million).
Last November, the European Commission sent another audit report to the Czech Republic, focusing on drawing from the Structural Funds. Babis violated Czech and European laws on conflicts of interest. The Czech Republic could lose several hundred million crowns in subsidies based on the findings of auditors. In this case, Babis denies he has a conflict of interest.