Czech MEP reports over 300 suspected cases of EU fund misuse in Slovakia 

Czech MEP Tomáš Zdechovský has filed over 300 complaints with the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF), the European Public Prosecutor's Office (EPPO), and the European Commission over alleged misuse of EU funds in Slovakia.

These complaints are the result of an information-gathering effort carried out following a recent fact-finding mission by the European Parliament's Committee on Budgetary Control (CONT), which Zdechovský led in Slovakia last month. The aim was to assess the management of EU funds.

"Out of all of Slovakia's 79 districts, we found suspected misuse of EU funds in all but three. That is absolutely alarming," Zdechovský said on Thursday.

He said that the complaints had come from whistleblowers, anti-corruption organisations, former employees of public institutions and agencies responsible for disbursing EU funds, and ordinary Slovak citizens. Many reported suspicious construction projects, opaque subsidies, and clientelist practices in the allocation of EU funds.

“People in Slovakia sent us an enormous amount of specific information and testimonies,” he added, also raising concerns about agricultural subsidies - an area long plagued by EU fund oversight issues.

Earlier this month, Zdechovský questioned the operations of Slovakia’s Agricultural Paying Agency (PPA) and urged EU Agriculture Commissioner Christophe Hansen to investigate the agency.

As Euractiv previously reported, Zdechovský's mission sparked political backlash in Slovakia after he alleged political intimidation and surveillance by the country's authorities.

Slovak Interior Minister Matúš Šutaj Eštok described the mission as a "punitive expedition" against his country. Prime Minister Robert Fico went further, labelling Zdechovský a '"foreign contract killer" allegedly acting on behalf of the opposition.

(cs, de)