Czechia will not sue European Commission regarding EUR 3.2 million fine for subsidy errors

The Czech government has decided not file an action at the EU Court of Justice against the European Commission (EC) in response to the EC’s issuing of a EUR 3.2 million fine for Czechia in response to errors that were made in agricultural subsidies, the country’s agriculture minister, Zdeněk Nekula, announced on Tuesday.

Part of the fine is a EUR 30,606 sanction for Andrej Babiš’s conflict of interest, as a Commission audit from 2019 found him to still be able to influence the agricultural holding Agrofert that he once owned while he was prime minister.

Agrofert spokeswoman Lucie Bukovanská reacted to the decision by saying that the company was surprised that the Czech government is willing to sacrifice the interests of Czechia for the sake of agreeing to a sanction on its political opponent worth around 1 percent of the total fine.