„The government has decided on this legal recourse,” Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek announced at a news conference following the weekly cabinet meeting. Farm Minister Petr Gandalovic said Brussels had failed to prove that the claimed excessive stocks had an undue impact on the EU’s internal market and “there were no exceptional extra costs for the union’s budget, not even a single euro.” The Commission signaled earlier this year that it intended to fine the Czech Republic 350 million koruna (€12.3 million, $16.6 million) for stockpiling the goods before it joined the EU in 2004.
Eight other new member states were also targeted for similar fines. Agriculture ministers from the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia and the Czech Republic announced at a meeting in the Slovak capital, Bratislava, on Tuesday that they envisaged a joint appeal against the fines. (eubusiness.com)
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