The European Parliament adopted its resolution on the conflict of interests of the prime minister of the Czech Republic, Andrej Babiš. The Socialists and Democrats consider it unacceptable for a member of the European Council to abuse his position and make it possible to misuse EU funds. The resolution adopted by the MEPs comes as a result of a debate on the case held during the last plenary session in May 2021.

Lara Wolters MEP, S&D negotiator on the file, said:

"Czech prime minister Andrej Babiš is able to prop up his own businesses with public money. In doing that, he is undermining European values and deceiving European taxpayers. Every euro that ends up in the pockets of oligarchs is not being spent on solving our shared European challenges, such as investing in recovery from the pandemic. The position we, the members of the European Parliament, took today is a logical consequence of the audit report by the European Commission.

“We insist on a solution to this flagrant case, in the interests of the Czech people and European taxpayers. In this context it is even more unacceptable when Mr Babiš calls the auditors of the Commission "mafia", let alone when he makes defamatory remarks against the media in the Czech Republic who are investigating this affair. The Commission should examine the possibility of triggering the rule of law conditionality mechanism if the Czech authorities do not act to stop the conflict of interests and protect the EU budget.”