Final Word from Wednesday, September 4, 2019

One day after State Prosecutor Jaroslav Šaroch washed his hands of the Stork's Nest criminal investigation, at least temporarily, OLAF washed its hands permanently of the Stork's Nest subsidy investigation. The Kč 50m project was ultimately funded with Czech money, the fraud office said yesterday, so it is now purely a Czech affair. This tends to support the speculation of those who think the EU Commission will also reverse itself with regard to Andrej Babiš's conflict of interest. Under this scenario, Agrofert won't be eligible for EU investment subsidies, and might even have to return some that it received. But the ban on its receiving Czech subsidies and state contracts will be stricken from the final EU report, because this is purely a Czech affair. And a recent legal analysis for Čepro found that Babiš's trust funds don't have legal personality and therefore cannot be controlled entities as defined by the law on corporations. Thanks to Brussels, Agrofert would be back in business. [ Czech Republic government entity anti-fraud ]