This is the monthly roundup of updates provided by the
EU Whistleblowing Monitor team of country editors detailing national developments in the transposition of the EU Directive on Whistleblowing during
February 2021.
As of today, there are just
9 months and 16 days until the deadline for transposition of the EU Directive on Whistleblowing.
Transposition is now underway in at least 21 countries and 6 Member States remain listed as ‘
not started.’
WIN is delighted to publish a briefing paper as part of a WIN series on transposition:
“Implementing the EU Directive: Whistleblowing protection laws must cover breaches of national law” . We hope this to be the first of several “one pager” publications to address key areas of concern as they arise to support the advocacy of our European partners.
Country Updates:
01/02/2021 – In
Czechia, the Government has
approved a
draft law which it declares ‘reflects’ the EU Directive. Civil society in the Czech republic have raised concerns about the proposed framework - see
recommendations for improvement and
Spotlight on WIN Member Oživení.
24/02/2021 –
Public consultation on a
draft law to implement the Directive has begun in
Denmark. A list of stakeholder organisations have been invited to provide opinions on the proposal until 24 March 2021.
25/02/2021 – After many years of campaigning from civil society, whistleblower protection is embedded in
Bulgaria’s future
Anticorruption Strategy.
Public consultation has now begun on the draft provisions which introduce personal liability for whistleblower retaliation.
05/02/2021 – In
Slovakia, a much-anticipated
Director has been appointed by Parliament to head up the national whistleblowing protection office.
04/02/2021 – Civil society in
Germany has
raised alarmed at employer associations
proposals for minimally implementing the Directive which seem to push again for mandatory internal reporting.
01/02/2021 – In
Lithuania, the status of transposition and a draft bill underway has been confirmed during a
meeting of the prosecutor general with civil society.
Resources:
WIN, in collaboration with Whistleblower-Netzwerk e.v., have published this
Spotlight: “Experts say Germany must change approach to protect whistleblowers” which is a shortened translation setting out legal arguments that verbatim transposition of the Directive which only protects reports of breaches of EU Law is not justifiable under principles of equality under German constitutional law.
Whistleblowing Impact have published this
report on the experience of whistleblowers which quantifies the personal cost of whistleblowing. These studies can provide persuasive empirical evidence of the need for laws and policies which comprehensively protect and fully compensate whistleblowers.
Finally, on the 23 February, WIN held an
Event and Call to Action with EU Whistleblowing Monitor partners TI Europe and Eurocadres which proved to be a lively discussion with over 180 people registering to attend. We hope to hold another event soon to continue to build momentum about the value of civil society working in coalition to hold governments to account and demand strong and effective national provisions.