European Commission audit requires Czechia pay back CZK 284 million of funding for Agrofert

The European Commission audit, which finds Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš to be in a conflict of interest over EU subsidies paid to the Agrofert holding he founded and placed in a trust fund two years ago, asks the Czech Republic to pay back close to CZK 284 million (around EUR 11 million) of funding provided by the EU to Agrofert, Czech Radio’s news site iRozhlas reported on Tuesday, basing the information on a passage of the confidential document that iRozhlas has managed to secure.

Some media outlets say they have already managed to secure the audit. According to Deník N and the investigative site Neovlivní, Czechia will have to pay back 100 percent of the funding which Adrofert received after February 9, 2017 – the day that new legislation on conflict of interest, sometimes known as “Lex Babiš”, was put into use. The grand total, the two papers say, encompases mistakes committed in the payouts of specific subsidies and is therefore around CZK 451 million. Some politicians have said that the Czech state should try to claim this money from Agrofert.