Martin Šebestyán is the minister of agriculture of the Czech Republic; ČT24 describes him as a nominee of SPD [3].
At a meeting of European Union agriculture ministers in Brussels at the end of September 2026, he commented on the interruption of part of the subsidy payments. In September 2026 the European Commission suspended for six months the running of the deadline within which 3.18 million euros (about 77 million crowns) from the EAFRD rural development fund were to be paid out. It justified this by an insufficient resolution of the possible conflict of interest of Prime Minister Andrej Babiš [1][3]. In a letter to the Czech authorities, the Commission stated that it does not consider the measures addressing the possible conflict of interest sufficient, and pointed out, among other things, that the potential beneficiaries of the newly created RSVP Trust are the prime minister's descendants. [2] Šebestyán described the step as an informal interim procedural measure, not a decision to suspend or exclude payments [1][2]. Petr Bendl, the agriculture minister of the ODS shadow government, criticised Šebestyán on the network X for being supposed to protect taxpayers' money and called on him to explain whose interests he defends. [1]
According to the minister, the Czech State Agricultural Intervention Fund therefore cannot stop the payments on its own, and the Commission has six months to finalise its position. According to the minister, the interruption concerns only the rural development fund, not the fund from which direct payments to farmers are made [2]. According to the minister, the Commission does not see a conflict of interest in the case of this fund, or considers it minimal, and therefore continues to reimburse payments to the Czech Republic. [1]
Babiš placed Agrofert in a trust fund in February 2026 and insists that he does not own it. [2]
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Sources
- ČTK / České noviny — 29 September 2026
- Novinky.cz — 29 September 2026
- ČT24 — 29 September 2026