European Commission ends conflict of interest proceedings against Czechia

Three years since it began investigating an alleged conflict of interest within the Czech government, the European Commission has ended proceedings into the matter, Czechia’s Regional Development Minister Ivan Bartoš said on Thursday. Several dozen findings were made during the investigation and the individual ministries of the Czech government will now be looking into cases where EU funding may have been provided illegally. Among them are cases related to the company founded by former Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš, Agrofert.

Mr Bartoš said that he expects Czechia will be asked to return some of the money that it received from the EU in funding. He said that it will be up to Czech institutions to get this money back from the companies that acquired it in breach of EU rules.