Slovakia: The Countess and the farmers
The European Union directs a massive amount of money towards Slovakia in the form of agricultural subsidies. These funds are managed and redistributed by the Agricultural Paying Agency (APA), an organisation with an annual budget of more than half a billion euros at its disposal. This kind of money attracts not only farmers and agricultural […]
Big Brother in times of plague
To effectively fight the coronavirus pandemic, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland are introducing various smartphone apps that promise to increase the safety of citizens and eventually loosen lockdown measures. But in practice, enforcing this kind of digital leash raises many privacy and data security concerns. Story by: Konrad Szczygieł (Fundacja Reporterów); Daniel Antoni (Investigatívne […]
Lockdown: the disappearing face mask
Closed borders and citizens who face tightened supervision over their daily lives. Fast-paced, wide-sweeping and often chaotic actions of governments, which are usually scrutinised by journalists and public opinion but which now, during the COVID-19 epidemic, have become a state secret.
Lex Babiš. What is the Czech Prime Minister’s interest in EU subsidies
“She’s a little deranged. She doesn’t understand how subsidies work at all,” Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš said of MEP Monika Hohlmeier following the European Parliament’s Budgetary Control Committee’s early March fact-finding mission to the Czech Republic. Led by Hohlmeier, the objective of the mission was to gain insights into the distribution of EU funds […]
Subsidised and defrauded. Visegrad EU funds under the eye of OLAF
For over twenty years, the European Anti-Fraud Office (commonly known as OLAF, from the French: Office européen de lutte antifraude) has been protecting the EU’s financial interests, investigating fraud, corruption, and serious misconduct within the Union’s budget and institutions. The office has also developed an anti-fraud policy for the European Commission. But while OLAF looks […]
EU funding fraud in Poland we know little about
Though the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) prepares comprehensive activity reports every year, it provides almost no information about recently disclosed crimes. Neither do the Polish authorities communicate openly and comprehensively about the nature and extent of EU subsidy frauds in the country. Story by Mariusz Jałoszewski, Konrad Szczygieł / Fundacja Reporterów Attempts at obtaining information […]
