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| - The European Parliament voted by a large majority on Thursday to demand stern action from Brussels to remedy Czech premier Andrej Babis's alleged conflict of interest over EU farm subsidies. The billionaire populist made his fortune as owner of the sprawling Agrofert food, chemicals and media holding -- a company that receives farm subsidies from the EU budget. Babis insists he transferred the holding to two trust funds in February 2017, when he was finance minister, but publicly available documents show he is still Agrofert's beneficial owner. A European Commission report published in April concluded that the payments should not have been made when Babis, as an EU leader, was one of those responsible for negotiating and approving the budget. MEPs voted by 505 votes in favour to 30 against, and with 155 abstentions, to declare that "the now-recognised conflict of interest of Czech Prime Minister Babis needs to be resolved, and concerns on the rule of law breaches in Czechia addressed". Babis dismissed the motion as a stunt by his domestic opponents. "This is the continuation of the European Parliament's interference in the internal affairs of the Czech Republic. We are a sovereign country and a political struggle is going on here," he said, according to the CTK news agency. "The elections are approaching and the EP is attempting to influence them. This initiative naturally comes from the Czech opposition, which is organising this," he added. But the German centre-right MEP who acts as rapporteur in the commission that drew up the motion, said parliamentarians from across the continent wanted action to protect the EU budget from misuse. "All of the evidence we have at hand indicates there are serious, systemic problems for Czechia that urgently need to be dealt with," Monika Hohlmeier said. "We expect the Commission to take clear action... and to prevent future Czech ministers or prime ministers from influencing the allocation of EU funds in favour of companies belonging to their family members or to themselves." The MEPs also declared themselves "deeply concerned by the political pressure on independent Czech media as well as the country's previous prosecutor-general". maj/dc/dl
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