{"id":1111,"date":"2018-09-20T11:22:01","date_gmt":"2018-09-20T09:22:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/czechpoints.com\/?p=1111"},"modified":"2019-07-11T16:38:27","modified_gmt":"2019-07-11T14:38:27","slug":"brussels-urged-to-investigate-babis-over-conflict-of-interest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/czechpoints.com\/brussels-urged-to-investigate-babis-over-conflict-of-interest\/","title":{"rendered":"Brussels urged to investigate Babis over conflict of interest"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels is being urged to investigate the Czech prime minister, Andrej Babi\u0161, over an alleged conflict of interest after transparency campaigners claimed new evidence of rule-breaking.<\/p>\n

Babi\u0161, a billionaire businessman, who founded the Action for Dissatisfied Citizens party, became prime minister of the Czech Republic last December<\/a>, but was soon embroiled in a scandal centred on alleged \u20ac2m EU subsidy fraud<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The latest allegations, from Transparency International, go further by putting the spotlight on his entire Agrofert business empire, a conglomerate of 230 companies spanning food, chemicals and media. Agrofert has rejected the claims as false.<\/p>\n

When he was finance minister in 2017, Babi\u0161 put Agrofert into a trust, to comply with new Czech legislation against conflicts of interest. But campaigners at Transparency International say he remains the \u201cbeneficial owner\u201d of Agrofert in breach of domestic and EU law. They say the claim is based on research of company documents in Slovakia, as the Czech equivalents are not available to the public.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn one hand he is sitting in EU meetings, where he decides about the subsidies in his pocket,\u201d said David Ondr\u00e1\u010dka, director of Transparency International in the Czech Republic. \u201cAnd at the same time he uses these subsidies to fund his political career, where he is dominating over his opponents.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Czech Republic is one of the biggest per-capita recipients of EU funds, along with Poland, Hungary and Slovakia. Agrofert received 1.9bn Czech crowns (\u00a368m) of EU subsidies in 2017, three times more than in 2012, according to Transparency International.<\/p>\n

The allegations come amid tensions between Europe\u2019s traditional parties and anti-establishment rivals that are often critical of the EU, but want to keep European funds flowing. Questions have been growing <\/a>over cronyism in Hungary, as it emerged Hungarian leader Viktor Orb\u00e1n\u2019s friends and family had been awarded public tenders worth millions.<\/a><\/p>\n

Agrofert rejected in a three-page statement what it called the \u201cfalse claims\u201d made by Transparency International, which it argued were based on a misinterpretation of the term \u201cfinal beneficiary\u201d in Slovak law.<\/p>\n

\u201cAndrej Babi\u0161 has no rights that would allow him \u2026 any decisive influence on the administration of the trusts,\u201d it said. \u201cMr Babi\u0161 is not in breach of the Act on conflict of interest.\u201d<\/p>\n

In an emailed statement to the Guardian on Wednesday, Babi\u0161 said: \u201cTransparency International spreads nonsense and keeps coming with such statements when there is a European summit or other events just like today when I travel to Salzburg.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said he had put the company in a private trust fund and given up his business before entering politics in 2014.<\/p>\n

He also accused Transparency International of running a politically motivated campaign against him and being \u201ceasily influenced\u201d because it received funding from the EU and ministries led by the Social Democrats, the junior party in his coalition \u2013 and political competitors.<\/p>\n

\u201cTI does not have any evidence for their words because there cannot be any evidence. I fully respect the law,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Via The Guardian<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Brussels is being urged to investigate the Czech prime minister, Andrej Babi\u0161, over an alleged conflict of interest after transparency campaigners claimed new evidence of rule-breaking. Babi\u0161, a billionaire businessman, who founded the Action for Dissatisfied Citizens party, became prime minister of the Czech Republic last December, but was soon embroiled in a scandal centred […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1024,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[4,2],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nBrussels urged to investigate Babis over conflict of interest - Czech Points<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/czechpoints.com\/brussels-urged-to-investigate-babis-over-conflict-of-interest\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Brussels urged to investigate Babis over conflict of interest - Czech Points\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Brussels is being urged to investigate the Czech prime minister, Andrej Babi\u0161, over an alleged conflict of interest after transparency campaigners claimed new evidence of rule-breaking. 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