European Interest

View of the Čapího nest site

Aktron/Wikimedia Commons/CC BY-SA 4.0
A View of the Čapího nest, Czech Republic.

Citing the much-talked-about report drafted by the European Anti-Fraud Office (Olaf) about Capi hnizdo, a company that was owned by Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis, the daily Hospodarske noviny (HN) reported that false and incomplete data were provided in its application for an EU subsidy.

HN quotes the report as saying that the investigation revealed that the recipient of the subsidy paid from a regional operational programme (ROP) provided untrue information for the body deciding on the subsidy and withheld crucial information from it.

As reported by BRNO Daily, this may be qualified as a fraud and violation of the financial interests of the EU. Olaf reportedly noted that the anonymous ownership structure of the Farma Capi hnizdo company was at variance with the transparency principles of the EU funding rules.

The Czech police accused Babis and another 10 people of misusing the EU subsidy of 50m crowns.

Babis said previously the Capi hnizdo (Stork Nest) company was owned by his adult children and his current brother-in-law through bearer shares at the time when the subsidy application was submitted.

Meanwhile, the lower house is slated to decide on the police request to lift parliamentary immunity of Babis and his ANO party’s deputy chairman Jaroslav Faltynek.

Explore more