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Brussels, January 27 (TASR) – A public hearing entitled Protection of the EU’s Financial Interests in Slovakia was held on Tuesday in the European Parliament (EP) in the Committee on Budgetary Control (CONT). The aim was to examine how the EU’s financial interests in Slovakia are protected, including suspicions of systemic fraud and measures taken to protect the EU budget, the TASR correspondent reports.
Several politicians and activists testified before the committee, including former agriculture minister Zsolt Simon, Zuzana Petková from the Stop Corruption foundation, and former employee of the Agricultural Paying Agency (PPA) Zuzana Šubová. State representatives did not attend the hearing.
Petková stated that the foundation is closely monitoring the “hacienda” case, in which private houses were allegedly built with contributions from EU funds allocated for the development of rural tourism, and that it is submitting motions to the prosecutor’s office for all violations of the law. The Ministry of Agriculture in the past, after checking the call, admitted certain errors, but according to the ministry these are only minor or individual failures.
Simon, who was agriculture minister in 2010 – 2012, recalled what he considers systemic errors that occurred mainly during the “Fico governments”. He criticized the lack of public oversight and digitalization of the PPA and, like Petková, warned against proposals to suspend the payment of EU funds to Slovakia in this area, as this would lead to a loss of competitiveness for Slovak farmers.
Šubová told journalists and MEPs that she came to the EP to draw attention to the malfunctioning control systems for EU funds provided through the PPA, where she served as head of the anti-corruption section. She claims that these are “long-term systemic failures”, not individual failures, which was also the case in the so-called “hacienda” affair.
According to her, organized groups operate in the PPA, taking EU funds only for their own purposes and disregarding compliance with EU funding conditions and legislation.
Slovak Minister of Agriculture Richard Takáč (Smer-SD) last commented on this case on January 18. He specified that in the case of the guesthouse call, the PPA is fully cooperating with law enforcement authorities and with the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF). In the call linked to the hacienda case, according to him, there were individual errors that are being addressed, and this call has undergone several audits by the European Commission and was also checked by the former Slovak government. He pointed out that under his leadership the ministry carried out another inspection and the identified problematic issues are being dealt with.
“The minister of agriculture claims that this is the fault of individuals, I say it is not. The corrupt system and financing schemes, whether of direct payments, projects or guesthouses, at the agency are a long-term, systemic problem where control mechanisms and audits do not work,” Šubová said on Tuesday.
She admitted that her main goal is to appeal to the European Commission and the European Parliament to focus on Slovakia and reassess the entire system of fund disbursement, because the EU’s financial interests are meant to ensure that finances benefit the end citizen and farmers, not only selected groups of oligarchs or politicians in the highest positions. (January 27)