Europe’s populist worries will intensify when right-wing billionaire Andrej Babiš becomes Czech prime minister today. Czech President Petr Pavel is set to appoint Babiš to the position after resolving longstanding conflict-of-interest issues related to the PM-elect’s conglomerate, Agrofert. Babiš and his future government have sparked fears in Brussels, where his opponents worry that alliances he could form at the European level may tilt Central Europe in an anti-establishment direction. Combined with Hungary’s Viktor Orbán and Slovakia’s Robert Fico, Babiš has the potential to jam up the legislative machinery in Brussels as it works on key files. Babiš regularly speaks of reviving the so-called Visegrád Four group, something both Orbán and Fico hope for, after it became largely dormant following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. A new Visegrád grouping would likely count three rather than the four members it had after being founded as a cultural and political alliance in the 1990s. Poland’s current center-right prime minister, Donald Tusk, is staunchly pro-Ukraine and is thus unlikely to enter any entente with Orbán. Polish President Karol Nawrocki of the right-wing populist Law and Justice (PiS) party, though, has been talking up the prospects for Visegrád. Babiš’ government — his Patriots for Europe-aligned ANO party is in a coalition with the far-right Freedom and Direct Democracy and right-wing Motorists for Themselves parties — is also likely to fight against EU-level pro-environment initiatives. That could cause issues for climate files like ETS2, the Emissions Trading System for road and buildings, and Brussels’ bid to ban combustion engines. Czech President Petr Pavel is set to appoint Andrej Babiš to the position after resolving longstanding conflict-of-interest issues related to the PM-elect’s conglomerate, Agrofert. | Martin Divisek/EPA Following his decisive victory in the Czech election Oct. 3-4, however, Babiš has toned down his previous remarks about canceling the Czech ammunition initiative in support of Ukraine, raising questions about whether the campaign rhetoric will translate into actual policy reversals. The extent to which Czechia becomes another EU disrupter might become clearer later this week as Babiš travels to Brussels to take part in the European Council — assuming the rest of his cabinet is appointed by then.

Czech right-wing billionaire Andrej Babiš will be the new prime minister in Prague after announcing Thursday evening that he would dispose of a potential conflict of interest. Babiš’ ANO party won the Czech parliamentary election in October and formed a coalition with the far-right Freedom and Direct Democracy and right-wing Motorists for Themselves parties. But the proposed prime minister and coalition ministers must be green-lit by Czech President Petr Pavel before taking office. Babiš has been entangled in legal woes, both at home and abroad, concerning his agriculture business empire Agrofert, which is a major recipient of EU subsidies. “Of course, I could have left politics after winning the election and had a comfortable life, or ANO could have appointed someone else as prime minister,” Babiš said Thursday night in a video address to voters. “But I am convinced that you would perceive it as a betrayal,” he added. “That is why I have decided to irrevocably give up the Agrofert company, with which I will no longer have anything to do, I will never own it, I will not have any economic relations with it, and I will not be in any contact with it.” Babiš’ ascension to the Czech premiership further tilts Central Europe in an anti-establishment direction, as the populist tycoon joins Hungary’s Viktor Orbán and Slovakia’s Robert Fico as potential thorns in Brussels’ side on key EU files. In stepping back from Agrofert, however, Babiš made clear the importance of retaking the prime ministerial role. The holding’s shares will now be managed through a trust structure by an independent administrator. “This step, which goes far beyond the requirements of the law, was not easy for me. I have been building my company for almost half my life and I am very sorry that I will also have to step down as chairman of the Agrofert Foundation,” Babiš said. “My children will only get Agrofert after my death,” he added. In response, Pavel announced that he would appoint Babiš as prime minister on Dec. 9. Andrej Babiš has been entangled in legal woes, both at home and abroad, concerning his agriculture business empire Agrofert, which is a major recipient of EU subsidies. | Gabriel Kuchta/Getty Images “I appreciate the clear and understandable manner in which Andrej Babiš has fulfilled our agreement and publicly announced how he will resolve his conflict of interest,” Pavel said. Pavel previously noted that strong pro-NATO and pro-EU stances, along with safeguarding the country’s democratic institutions, will be key factors in his decision-making regarding the proposed Cabinet. Czech conflict of interest law bars officials (or their close relatives) from owning or controlling a business that would create a conflict with their governing function. This doesn’t mean ministers can’t own businesses, just that they must prioritize the public interest over their own. Similar rules exist at the EU level. When he was prime minister the first time round, from 2017 to 2021, Babiš placed Agrofert — which consists of more than 250 companies — in trust funds, but the Czech courts as well as the European Commission in 2021 concluded that he still retained influence over them and was therefore in violation of EU conflict-of-interest rules.

ATHENS — Greek authorities made dozens of arrests on Wednesday related to Greece’s spiraling farm fraud case, in an investigation led by European prosecutors. Some 37 people suspected of being members of an organized criminal group involved in large-scale agricultural funding fraud and money laundering activities were arrested, and searches were carried out throughout the country, according to a statement by the European Public Prosecutor’s Office. In a snowballing scandal, the EPPO is pursuing dozens of cases in which Greeks allegedly received agricultural funds from the European Union for pastureland they did not own or lease, or for agricultural work they did not perform, depriving legitimate farmers of the funds they deserved. POLITICO first reported on the scheme in February. Several ministers and deputy ministers have resigned over their alleged involvement in the scandal. The EU has already fined Athens €400 million after finding evidence of systemic failings in the handling of farm subsidies from 2016 through to 2023. Greece also risks losing its EU farm subsidies unless it provides an improved action plan on how it will stop funds being siphoned off into corruption. The original deadline was Oct. 2, but this has now been pushed back to Nov. 4. “The Commission is awaiting the submission of the revised action plan and in the meantime, it continues to be in contact with the Greek authorities,” a European Commission spokesperson told POLITICO earlier this month. Wednesday’s operation centered on a criminal network accused of illegally obtaining EU farm subsidies through false declarations submitted to the organization in charge of distributing EU farm funds in Greece, OPEKEPE. According to the EPPO, in the course of the preliminary investigation, 324 individuals were identified as subsidy recipients, causing an estimated cost of more than €19.6 million to the EU budget. Of these, 42 are believed to be involved in this case and are considered current members of the criminal group, says the EPPO. Most of them appear to have no actual connection to farming or producing, according to the Greek and EU authorities. The EPPO said that, at least since 2018, the group “allegedly exploited procedural gaps” in the submission of applications using falsified or misleading documents to claim agricultural subsidies from OPEKEPE. They are suspected of fraudulently declaring pastureland that did not belong to them or did not meet eligibility criteria. They allegedly inflated livestock numbers to increase their subsidy entitlements. To conceal the illicit origin of the proceeds, they are believed to have issued fictitious invoices, routed the funds through multiple bank accounts, and mixed them with legitimate income. Part of the misappropriated money was allegedly spent on luxury goods, travel and vehicles, to disguise the funds as lawful assets. Greece’s anti-money laundering authority is investigating Giorgos Xylouris, a farmer from Crete and until recently member of ruling New Democracy. Xylouris is one of the key characters mentioned in EPPO case files, under the nickname Frappé (“Iced Coffee”), regarding the OPEKEPE scandal. Some €2.5 million was discovered in his bank accounts during a random inspection, the Greek officials said. Authorities found that Xylouris had failed to submit the required financial documentation and could not justify the large sum. Eight vehicles were also identified in his possession, including a Jaguar luxury car. The case file has been sent to the prosecutors to examine possible violations of anti-bribery laws and an investigation is ongoing regarding whether money laundering has occurred.

BRUSSELS — Europe’s food system depends on an endangered species: its farmers. Every year, thousands of them retire and fewer take their place. Across the countryside, barns are shuttered, land is leased to ever-larger holdings and rural schools quietly close. The result is fewer people growing food, more imports filling supermarket shelves and a profession slipping into decline. That’s the slow-moving crisis Brussels is set to confront on Tuesday, when Agriculture Commissioner Christophe Hansen unveils the EU’s Strategy for Generational Renewal in Agriculture — a plan to keep the next generation of food producers from giving up before they’ve begun. Young farmers have been asking lawmakers to act for well over a decade, said Peter Meedendorp, the 25-year-old president of the European Council of Young Farmers, or CEJA, speaking by phone as he rushed back from his tractor on the Dutch farm he runs with his father and brothers. In the run-up to the strategy’s release, Meedendorp has been splitting his time between the fields and Brussels. While he’s eager to see what Hansen delivers, he’s also wary: “To what extent can we make all the nice recommendations reality in the field if no finance is attached?”  The European Commission wants member countries to spend 6 percent of their Common Agricultural Policy money on generational renewal — double the current level. If countries make good on that target, CEJA’s cause could be on the receiving end of over €17 billion between 2028 and 2034, a budgetary boost compared with recent years. The question is whether the plan can actually stop Europe’s farms from disappearing. PRICED OUT Over a third of farm managers in Europe are over 65, while less than one in eight are under the age of 40.  “It’s not that young people don’t want to farm — it’s that it’s nearly impossible to start,” said Sara Thill, the 21-year-old vice president of Luxembourg’s young farmers group LLJ, in an interview in Brussels last week.  Young farmers struggle to find available and affordable land to start working. One hectare of arable land in the EU costs almost €12,000. That price rises to over €90,000 on average in Meedendorp’s native Netherlands, up from €56,000 a decade ago.  “When you start, the banks ask for guarantees your parents can’t give — it’s a vicious circle,” said Florian Poncelet, a 29-year-old beef farmer who heads Belgian regional young farmers’ association FJA. Roy Meijer, chair of the Dutch young farmers farmers’ group NAJK, put it bluntly: “Banks look at young farmers as risk. If you’re 25 and want to buy land, forget it.” Across Europe, young farmers sound more impatient than nostalgic. They see agriculture not as a tradition to protect but a business to reinvent. “Young farmers aren’t waiting for subsidies,” Meijer said, pushing back against the idea that they expect easy money from Brussels. What they want, he argued, is predictability — rules that don’t change with every new reform, and recognition that they’re entrepreneurs like any others. “People my age aren’t afraid of innovation,” he added. “We want to use drones, data, AI. But to invest, we need clear, long-term rules. You can’t build a business on shifting ground.” UPPING THE ANTE Brussels has been trying to lure new farmers for decades through its CAP, with mixed results. Member countries currently dedicate 3 percent of their EU-funded farm payments to young farmer schemes — about €6.8 billion between 2023 and 2027. Now Hansen wants to up the ante. A recent draft of the strategy, obtained by POLITICO, sets a goal to double the share of EU farmers under 40 to nearly a quarter by 2040. To get there, the Commission wants countries to spend 6 percent of their CAP budgets on young farmers, limit payments to retirees and offer loans of up to €300,000 for new entrants. It also urges capitals to use tax reform and land-use policies as tools to make farming more attractive, while touting the Commission’s own plans to publish a bioeconomy strategy next month. Young farmers’ groups worry the ambition may outstrip the means. Unlike the current farm budget, which enforces the 3 percent minimum, the 6 percent target is only aspirational. That has left CEJA concerned that some governments could spend even less. Young farmers fear that generational renewal will struggle to compete against other funding priorities, and that the new strategy’s fate may hinge less on good intentions than on the next CAP itself — a reform already under fire from both farm lobbies and lawmakers. Commission officials have pushed back on those criticisms, pointing to the various funding streams young farmers could access through the new “starter pack” in the future CAP and the upcoming generational renewal strategy. The Commission has also suggested restructuring CAP payments to divert funding from large farmers to smaller — and younger — ones.  Nonetheless, “not earmarking any money for a specific group of young farmers is a signal,” Meedendorp insisted. “We have a commissioner who bills himself as a young farmer commissioner, who is also the one proposing a CAP without any earmarking for young farmers.”

PIRAEUS, Greece — It’s not just Greece and Slovakia. EU farm funds and other subsidies are fueling corruption across the bloc, Europe’s top prosecutor warned Thursday. A massive scam to defraud the EU of hundreds of millions of euros has convulsed Athens this year, after many Greeks improperly received farm subsidies for land they did not own, or for farm work they did not do. Several ministers and deputy ministers resigned over their alleged involvement in the scandal. But the head of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office, Laura Codruța Kövesi, told POLITICO in an interview that Greece was far from being a one-off. “I wouldn’t say Greece is very different. We have noticed fraud with the subsidies in almost all the member states, the difference is how much and how many cases we have,” the Romanian graft-buster said. “In Greece we discovered that the way the criminal activity was committed was very systematic and very well organized, with the involvement of somehow high officials. But we see the same things also in other member states.” The European Union’s lavish farm subsidies are a tempting target for corruption schemes as they represent one-third of the entire EU budget. The European Union’s lavish farm subsidies are a tempting target for corruption schemes as they represent one-third of the entire EU budget. | Angelos Tzortzinis/AFP via Getty Images In a press conference earlier in the day, Kövesi also revealed she had received a letter from a Greek farmer claiming honest applicants were excluded from EU funds because others resorted to bribery. “Let’s talk about this: how honest farmers had no access,” she said. Another of Kövesi’s major targets is the Recovery and Resilience Facility, set up in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic to dole out huge sums of cash to help countries get back on their feet. Hundreds of RRF cases are currently being investigated by EPPO. “Now we have these RRF funds. Of course, the organized crime moved the attention to that because they can make money,” she told POLITICO. Kövesi was speaking in the customs office in Piraeus, Greece’s largest port. Beyond the window lay thousands of shipping containers full of Chinese goods seized by European prosecutors, who uncovered a scheme designed to evade the payment of antidumping duties applicable to Chinese imports, in the biggest investigation of its kind. The message she sought to send to the criminals behind this fraud was: “The rules of the game have changed, no more safe havens for you. We have discovered a new continent of crime.  Organized crime is growing stronger by defrauding the EU and national budgets.” In order to deal with these cases she is seeking a bigger team, both in Athens and elsewhere. She has requested more European delegated prosecutors to work on her team, leading cross-border investigations into crimes related to the EU budget, as well as dedicated national financial investigators, from police, customs and tax authorities to work exclusively on EPPO cases. “There is no clean country. Everyone is affected by corruption and financial fraud,” she said. Some of her investigations are hitting brick walls when it comes to potential political involvement. In Greece, Kövesi’s team is investigating dozens of cases, including alleged misappropriation of EU funds in connection with a train accident in Tempi that caused the deaths of 57 people. Greece’s conservative New Democracy government rejected EPPO’s call for action against two former ministers after the crash. “Corruption can kill. Tempi is one of those examples,” she repeated. The government also blocked a probe into ministers allegedly involved in the snowballing farm fraud. EPPO is investigating how the scheme involved businesspeople, political figures and people working at the organization responsible for overseeing the distribution of the EU subsidies, a state agency called OPEKEPE. “OPEKEPE has become the acronym for corruption, nepotism and clientelism,” she said during the press conference. “Just like in the Tempi case, this criminal investigation could not develop its full reach because of the Greek constitution.” Based on a peculiarity of the Greek constitution, only the national parliament has the power to investigate and prosecute members or former members of the Greek government. EPPO has raised the issue with the European Commission, as well as with the Greek authorities and said it had received assurances that this provision would change. Asked about the ongoing investigation in the Greek parliament, the EU’s top prosecutor referred to high-profile attempts to intimidate her investigators in Greece. “Justice cannot become a TV reality show. A cat with a bell cannot catch mice,” she said. “EPPO is here to stay. Despite intimidation attempts we are very proud of the EPPO team in Athens.”

ATHENS — Greece risks losing its EU farm subsidies unless it provides an improved action plan by Oct. 2 on how it will stop funds being siphoned off into corruption, as happened in a massive fraud scandal that has convulsed Athens this year. Brussels is seeking to combat a scam to defraud the EU of hundreds of millions of euros, in which Greeks received agricultural funds for pastureland they did not own or lease, or for agricultural work they did not perform, depriving legitimate farmers of the funds they deserved. POLITICO first reported on the scheme in February. Several ministers and deputy ministers resigned over their alleged involvement in the scandal, which is under investigation by the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO). After the fraud was exposed, Greece supplied an action plan on how it would address the often eye-popping abuses of payments from the Common Agricultural Policy, which accounts for a third of the EU budget. The European Commission’s Directorate-General for Agriculture (DG AGRI), in a letter sent to the Greek government last month and now seen by POLITICO, said that proposal had failed to address key deficiencies and did not comply with EU rules. “After analyzing the action plan and the additional information provided by the Greek authorities in your letter of June 2, 2025, DG AGRI is of the opinion that the plan, as currently proposed, is not sufficient to remedy the deficiencies and therefore does not comply with the provisions,” the letter said. Brussels is seeking to combat a scam to defraud the EU of hundreds of millions of euros, in which Greeks received agricultural funds for pastureland they did not own or lease, or for agricultural work they did not perform. | Angelos Tzortzinis/AFP via Getty Images It added Greece should “amend and strengthen” its action plan. “It is recalled that if a Member State fails to submit an action plan, the Commission may adopt implementing acts suspending the monthly payments or the interim payments,” it added. In response to the warning, Greek Agriculture Minister Konstantinos Tsiaras on Thursday reassured farmers that there was no risk of losing European funds, and expressed confidence that Greece’s new plan would allay the EU’s concerns. He said that the organization in charge of distributing EU farm funds in Greece, OPEKEPE, is now in the final stages of being integrated into Greece’s Independent Authority for Public Revenue, which will allow comprehensive verification of property records and cross-checks before payments. “The deadline has to do with the submission of a new plan, which will obviously be incorporated into the implementation of the Action Plan,” he said. “There is no risk of losing EU agricultural funds.” In the meantime, Greece’s parliament convened this week to begin investigating the OPEKEPE scandal. The entire opposition is questioning the ruling center-right New Democracy party’s commitment to a thorough investigation. On Thursday, the opposition parties accused the government of torpedoing the investigation from the outset as it rejected a list of key witnesses named in a case file sent to the parliament by the EPPO, including political figures. “The same cover-up tactics we saw in [previous cases] continues, with key witnesses being excluded, whom the EPPO has used but New Democracy is protecting,” Milena Apostolaki, an MP from the center-left PASOK party, said in a statement.

First Greece. Now Slovakia.  Slovak officials face allegations of having used European funds to build fake guesthouses that only privileged insiders can stay in.  On paper, the guesthouses were intended to support rural tourism. In reality some have served as luxury villas for officials and their friends — with some even living in them permanently.  The so-called Hacienda case has been in the Slovak spotlight for months, with the opposition calling for answers and accountability and the ruling party trying to ignore it.   At the center of it all sits the national Agricultural Payment Agency (PPA), an official body under the Ministry of Agriculture responsible for distributing payments under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), which accounts for a third of the European Union budget. The equivalent agency in Greece was the vehicle for a fraud scandal this year that forced several top officials to resign and resulted in a €400 million EU fine.  Zuzana Šubová, who headed the PPA’s anti-corruption department for several months during Eduard Heger’s 2021-2023 government, is currently one of the agency’s leading critics. “From the very start of our work, we uncovered fatal systemic failures and a deeply corrupt and opaque environment,” Šubová told POLITICO. The agency, she added, had relied on employees hiding evidence of wrongdoing ever since it was founded in 2003.  “This system, run through these powerful staff networks, which I call an organized criminal group, lasted 20 years, and no one managed to break it. It was our department, under my leadership, that finally did,” she said.  Šubová left the agency amid controversy after she failed to win a tender to keep her job, saying in a Facebook post at the time that the contest had been rigged in order to remove her. She now chairs the Pirate Party — Slovakia, an extra-parliamentary opposition group.   “We simply need to shut the whole thing down and start from scratch — create a clean, transparent agency,” she said.  Michal Šimečka the liberal Progressive Slovakia, has alleged that tens of millions of euros intended to help people in Slovakia “were misused by Robert Fico’s government and his oligarchs.” | Jakub Gavlak/EPA In a statement to POLITICO, the PPA objected to Šubová’s remarks and said it was taking legal action “to protect its good name.”  “The PPA views the ongoing efforts by a non-parliamentary party together with Ms. Šubová — concerning calls for proposals and projects from over 10 years ago — as an insult to the hundreds of colleagues who work daily to develop Slovak agriculture and ensure the country’s food self-sufficiency,” the PPA said.  A former senior official at the agriculture ministry, who spoke to POLITICO on condition of anonymity, said however that the PPA was “rotten” and “nothing other than a bank for oligarchs.”  THE HACIENDA CASE  Nitrianske Hrnčiarovce, a small town in western Slovakia with around 2,000 inhabitants, is home to an opulent villa that cost European taxpayers €550,000. But booking a stay here requires extra steps: You won’t find it on booking.com or Airbnb, and you can only make a reservation via a form on the villa’s own website. Journalists from the Slovak news outlet 360sk tried and failed to make a reservation. The property is secured behind a locked gate.  Meanwhile, in the southwestern Slovak village of Vrčún, a house that received €220,000 in EU funds to be turned into a tourism facility has instead served as a family residence for the past five years.  In another case, a senior PPA official used EU funds to help their daughter build a family residence, according to an anti-corruption foundation. A whistleblower, who says he was fired for raising the alarm on that case, recently spoke out in Slovak media. The PPA said in response that the whistleblower had retired and his contract couldn’t be extended due to budget cuts.  “The Agricultural Payment Agency strongly refutes several false claims made by a former employee. With these statements, the individual not only misleads the public but also damages the good reputation of the PPA,” the agency said in a statement.  These are just some examples of guesthouses or buildings awarded subsidies intended for rural tourism under dubious circumstances from 2015 to 2016 under Prime Minister Robert Fico’s second government. Hacienda is a political hot-button issue. Michal Šimečka, leader of Slovakia’s largest opposition party, the liberal Progressive Slovakia, has alleged that tens of millions of euros intended to help people in Slovakia “were misused by Fico’s government and his oligarchs.” Freedom and Solidarity (SaS), another opposition party, has compiled a list of all the guesthouses in question. The properties share a common pattern: difficult to locate, barely any online presence, challenging to book, gated off, or serving as private residences. Yet according to the rules, recipients of EU subsidies are required to keep such businesses running and open to the public for at least five years after getting the money.  Moreover, several of the projects are connected to allies of Fico’s ruling Smer (Direction) party. The former senior Slovak official cited above told POLITICO he had encountered several corruption cases during his time at the institution and had filed fraud reports.  He and his colleagues were pushed to leave their jobs by mutual agreement after the department was moved to a city far from where they lived, the official said. He no longer has any information on what happened with the cases he flagged.  “We were already aware of the issues surrounding the haciendas back in 2020 and sounded the alarm. I believe that’s part of the reason we were forced to leave the ministry,” he said, adding that while many of these issues had been reported in the media, the authorities had ignored the matter.  LACK OF TRANSPARENCY  Over the years, the PPA has been repeatedly investigated by both local and European authorities.  In March the national Supreme Audit Office found that while the PPA had formally adopted anti-corruption measures, their implementation was “hampered by personnel and professional limits, weak control mechanisms and a low level of transparency.”   Last year, the EU’s OLAF anti-fraud office closed the last of six investigations into the Dobytkár (Stock Breeder) case, one of the largest corruption scandals in Slovakia’s history. The case came to light in connection with the 2018 murder of investigative journalist Ján Kuciak, who had been working on a story related to agricultural fraud. In its final probe, OLAF found that farmers had paid around €10 million in bribes to Slovak officials to secure illegitimate access to EU rural development funds distributed under the CAP. OLAF, which has no prosecutorial powers, recommended that the money be recovered and reported specific criminal acts by people involved in the scam to the Slovak authorities.  A separate Dobytkár investigation found evidence of fraud in Slovakia and resulted in criminal charges. Several individuals now on trial previously held senior positions at the PPA, including former director Juraj Kožuch. Like others in the case he stands accused of accepting bribes for approving subsidies and laundering the illicit proceeds. Kožuch, who has been released on bail, denies the charges.  Back in 2020 the European Commission froze 25 percent of reimbursements to the PPA over earlier fraud issues, demanding an external audit, a management overhaul and improved transparency. Although the agency later regained its accreditation, Šubová argues these reforms were only implemented on paper, not in practice, echoing the assessment of Slovakia’s Supreme Audit Office.  Tomáš Zdechovský, a Czech member of the European Parliament who led a Committee on Budgetary Control mission to Bratislava in May and spent months gathering evidence on suspicious cases. | Thierry Monasse/Getty Images Asked for comment, the European Commission said the PPA had been the subject of several audits over the past five years. “Those audits identified deficiencies in the proper functioning of its CAP governance systems. Therefore, DG AGRI applied financial corrections for the financial years 2019 to 2021 to protect the Union’s financial interests. DG AGRI also asked the Slovak authorities to address the root causes of those deficiencies and continues to follow the situation closely,” it said in a statement.  EUROPEAN INTEREST  Tomáš Zdechovský, a Czech member of the European Parliament who led a Committee on Budgetary Control mission to Bratislava in May and spent months gathering evidence on suspicious cases, said the embezzlement of EU funds in Slovakia was “systematic.”  “We’ve collected over 300 examples from Slovakia that show how, over the past 10 years, EU money has been consistently funneled to certain groups of people. These groups inflate the prices of all the contracts to enrich themselves,” the conservative lawmaker said, adding he had reported those 300 cases to the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO), OLAF and the European Commission.  “They draw the funds not for public benefit, but for private use. Like renovating their own homes or buying trucks and other things that have nothing to do with what the money was meant for,” Zdechovský said.  The PPA responded that it has “established control mechanisms” and that the right of every current or former employee to report corruption “is in no way restricted and can be exercised with full confidence.”  “PPA guarantees that any beneficiary who does not comply with the conditions of any project will be obliged to return the financial resources,” the agency added.    EPPO, which spearheaded the probe into the Greek farm fraud, said it was “in the process of verifying numerous allegations with a view to determine if it can exercise its competence in these cases under the applicable legal framework.” It added that it was “still too soon to share any more information.”  EPPO’s prosecutor for Slovakia, Juraj Novocký, told the Denník N daily paper last month that the office has been investigating dozens of cases related to the PPA and that in some cases, criminal prosecutions are already underway. “In specific cases, charges have already been brought against certain individuals. I firmly believe that we will be able to review and investigate the package of several dozen cases we received within a reasonable timeframe, and once we have our findings, we will certainly inform the public,” Novocký said. WHAT DOES THE GOVERNMENT SAY?  Fico’s government, faced with accusations from the opposition and the media, has attempted to downplay the saga.  Agriculture Minister Richard Takáč has called the Hacienda case a “made-up scandal” and insisted that all internal controls at the PPA are working properly. He accused the opposition of trying to topple the government and harm Slovakia’s image in a way that risks depriving it of access to EU funds.  Fico, now serving his fourth term as prime minister, has called Zdechovský, the Czech MEP, “a hired killer doing dirty opposition work.” He denied that his government was corrupt, and has blocked an opposition attempt to hold an extraordinary session of parliament to debate the matter.  Local journalists reporting on the scandal complain that the government won’t take their findings seriously.  Robert Fico, now serving his fourth term as prime minister, has called Tomáš Zdechovský, the Czech MEP, “a hired killer doing dirty opposition work.” | Pool Photo by Vladimir Smirnov via EPA “You can’t shake off the feeling that things aren’t being properly investigated. The problem lies in the leadership heading key departments, who remain in high-level positions [at the PPA],” said Xenia Makarová from the Zastavme korupciu (Let’s Stop Corruption) NGO.  According to Makarová, people who follow the rules and work to expose shady practices are systematically removed through internal restructuring, keeping the wheels of grift oiled.  “Meanwhile, the minister, and also other members of the government and parliament, attack those who are uncovering these scandals, particularly journalists,” she added.  Attacks against journalists and attempts to control independent media have sparked concern in Brussels over democratic backsliding in Slovakia.  Since Fico returned to power in October 2023 his ruling coalition has taken a leaf out of Hungarian premier Viktor Orbán’s illiberal playbook. It has abolished the special prosecutor’s office and disbanded the national crime agency atop the police force — both of which had been at the forefront of major corruption investigations and previously handled cases linked to officials from Fico’s ruling Smer party.  The agriculture ministry did not respond to a request for a comment. 

The Czech government is demanding that the business owned by former Prime Minister and election favorite Andrej Babiš return more than €200 million in farm subsidy payments, raising the stakes ahead of a national vote in October. Giving an overall figure for the first time, Agriculture Minister Marek Výborný said that the Agrofert conglomerate should repay 5.1 billion koruny (€208 million) — of which 4.24 billion koruny were EU direct payments, with the remaining 860 million koruny made up of national subsidies. The decision follows a series of court defeats suffered by Agrofert in recent months, relating to subsidies the conglomerate received back when Babiš was prime minister from 2017 to 2021. Despite putting Agrofert into two trusts, the courts found that he continued to control the business, meaning that the company was not eligible for the subsidies. “Based on the facts known to me and the Supreme Administrative Court’s decision, which was confirmed by the Constitutional Court at the end of April, we are moving forward with proceedings to reclaim payments made during that period to companies ultimately owned by Andrej Babiš,” said Výborný. Babiš accused the center-right government, which polls show faces defeat in the Oct. 3-4 polls, of pursuing a political vendetta. “Minister Výborný has been abusing his position and officials for political battles and only wants to gain visibility before the elections. The whole coalition is obsessed with Babiš and Agrofert,” said Babiš. Babiš’s populist ANO party has long been the election front-runner, with support reaching 33 percent this week, despite a dog-slaying hitman scandal that rocked his party. The tycoon campaigns on messaging often associated with the far right and has vowed to scrap ammunition deliveries to Ukraine — but has not unveiled the official election program yet. His main opponent, the Spolu coalition, which includes three out of four governing parties, lags on 20 percent. The bloc’s ratings have suffered from unpopular decisions such as a pensions reform, poor communication and internal friction — along with factors like high inflation and energy costs. In a separate but related ruling, Prague’s High Court has overturned an earlier decision clearing Babiš of wrongdoing in a €2 million EU subsidy fraud. That case is now with the same Prague District Court that in February 2024 acquitted Babiš and his former adviser and current Patriots for Europe Member of the European Parliament Jana Nagyová of fiddling ownership documents so the former leader’s agriculture holding qualified for the subsidies. The High Court said the lower court had not evaluated the evidence properly — and obliged it to follow its legal opinion. That essentially means that the lower court cannot acquit Babiš again unless new evidence is found. If he takes power after the elections, the court will need to ask the newly elected deputies to waive his immunity. Both Babiš and Nagyová have pleaded not guilty on numerous occasions, claiming the case is politically motivated.

BRUSSELS — The European Commission is trying to limit the amount of money any single farmer can receive in subsidies, putting it at odds with some member countries and large-scale agricultural producers. This isn’t the first (or second) time that rules limiting payments to large farms — referred to in EU-speak as “capping” and “degressivity” — have been proposed by the Brussels-based executive. Previous attempts have been met with fierce opposition, and even as he announced the new plan, Agriculture Commissioner Christophe Hansen anticipated hostility. “I know that certain member states will not like it. Certain regions in the European Union will not like it. But if we have to deal with the same amount of money and we want to better support young farmers, new farmers, small farmers, well, we have to take it from somewhere,” he told members of the European Parliament during a grilling on the new Common Agricultural Policy proposal. Ahead of negotiations that start in earnest this fall with the Council of the EU, which represents the bloc’s 27 member countries, we crunched the numbers on which countries may be most affected by the proposed changes to the CAP in the bloc’s next seven-year fiscal term. BIG PICTURE In the 2023 financial year, 20 percent of the EU’s farms received 80 percent of direct payments. The majority of these payments are decoupled area-based payments, meaning that farmers are paid per hectare regardless of what they produce.  This means large-scale farms can benefit from huge payouts.    In order to limit these, the EU’s new proposal would allow member countries to pay farmers anywhere from €130 to €240 on average per hectare. No individual farmer would receive more than €100,000 annually in area-based income support.  Up to that threshold, member countries would need to progressively reduce the amount of money paid out to farmers depending on the amount (e.g. a 25 percent reduction between €20,000 and €50,000 or 50 percent between €50,000 and €70,000). IN THE FIRING LINE Over 54 percent of the money paid out as decoupled payments in the 2023 financial year was spent on payments over €20,000. That suggests over half of decoupled payment spending could have been subject to capping or degressivity if the Commission’s proposed rules were in place at the time.  That number rises to over 85 percent in Slovakia and Czechia. In these countries, large farms of 50 hectares or more account for over 90 percent of the countries’ utilized agricultural area. By comparison, on an EU-wide basis, large farms work around two-thirds of the utilized agricultural area. At the other end of the spectrum, in Greece, 90 percent of the money paid out as decoupled payments went to farmers getting less than €20,000. So only the remaining 10 percent of the money paid out would have been at risk of impact by the Commission’s new proposals. ON THE GROUND While large swathes of funds could be affected by capping and degressivity, the vast majority of farmers in the bloc would not be directly impacted.  Over 90 percent of farmers in the EU received less than the €20,000 threshold in decoupled payments in the 2023 financial year.  Around 40 percent of the beneficiaries of decoupled payments in Luxembourg and France could feel the pinch if the Commission successfully passes new rules limiting payments. But in every other EU country this number is below 25 percent.  WHAT IT ALL MEANS The new rules would “hit hardest those farmers who are currently the backbone of European production,” argues Farm Europe, a farm industry think tank. It argues that the proposed rules are simply a cost-cutting measure, and not geared toward actual fairness.  Théo Paquet, senior policy officer for Agriculture at the European Environmental Bureau, which represents a network of environmental citizens’ groups, hopes that this will be a first step toward “real redistribution” and the eventual phasing out of area-based income support that isn’t linked to any results.  In the meantime, “we are facing a lot of environmental impacts on the agricultural sector and there needs to be money made available for that. And for us, this is clearly where the money needs to be made available,” he argued.  Whether the proposal survives wrangling between the Council, Parliament and Commission will become clear as negotiations kick off after the summer. Finally, it’s important to note that the data used in this article is the latest publicly available data, pertaining to the 2023 financial year, meaning the 2022 CAP claim year.  This means that the decoupled payments included payment types that existed under the previous CAP that are no longer relevant, for example the greening payment. The figures used in this article are thus illustrative, assuming that under the next CAP the distribution of payments remains similar to previous years. 

Listen on * Spotify * Apple Music * Amazon Music Trillions of euros, almost as many priorities — and just over two years to agree. The European Commission has unveiled its sweeping new seven-year budget proposal, and the fight over where the money goes is already heating up. Host Sarah Wheaton is joined by POLITICO’s Gregorio Sorgi and Bartosz Brzeziński to break down the big winners and losers in the 2028–2034 MFF (Multiannual Financial Framework, as the EU’s long-term budget is known) — from slashed farm spending to a five-fold boost for defense and competitiveness. What’s the political vision behind the numbers? And what does the chaotic rollout tell us about Ursula von der Leyen’s grip on the process? Then we shift to the escalating transatlantic trade fight. With Donald Trump having threatened 30 percent tariffs on EU exports, Brussels must decide whether to appease, retaliate — or something in between. You’ll hear highlights from a POLITICO Pro panel featuring trade reporters Camille Gijs and Ari Hawkins along with editor Doug Busvine. If you’re interested in a Pro subscription, learn more here: https://www.politico.eu/why-go-pro/ Further reading: Brussels slashes the EU farm budget, calls it a win. Farmers call it a declaration of war, by Bartosz Brzeziński, Lucia Mackenzie and Ferdinand Knapp The muddled €1.8 trillion EU budget launch that exposes von der Leyen’s weaknesses, by Gregorio Sorgi