EU Whistleblowing Monitor – January 2021 Roundup

February 11, 2021
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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 January 2021.
 
As of today, there are just 10 months and 6 days until the deadline for transposition of the EU Directive on Whistleblowing.
 
Transposition is now underway in at least 20 countries and 7 Member States remain listed as ‘not started.’ 
 
Country Updates:
 
25/01/2021 – In Czechia, the Government suspended discussions on a draft whistleblowing protection law due to ongoing ambiguities of the intended role of the Labor Inspectorate.
 
Note: On the 01 February 2020 it was announced that the Government had approved the draft law which has been declared to reflect the EU Directive. Civil society in Czechia have raised concerns about the proposed framework -  see recommendations for improvement and Spotlight on WIN Member Oživení.
 
27/01/2021 – In Spain, public consultation on a draft proposal to implement the Directive was launched by the Ministry of Justice, which closed on 27 January. Civil Society have responded to the call for submissions. You can read WIN Associate Xnet’s submission here.
 
20/01/2021 – Public consultation has also been announced in France. The Ministry of Justice has invited unions, associations and NGOs to submit opinions before the 21 March 2021. A position paper on implementation of the Directive has been presented to parliament by the Defender of Rights ombuds institution. Civil society have called for progressive implementation in this op-ed penned by Maison des Lanceurs D’Alerte.
 
25/01/2021 – In Italy, initial preparatory work has now begun in Parliament. Once discussed and approved, a draft Bill will officially appoint the Ministry of Justice and the Department for European Policies to commence transposition.

09/01/2021 – In Belgium a second draft proposal relevant to whistleblowing protection has been introduced to parliament. The Government had previously published a tender to outsource a preparatory investigation into transposition, the results of which are still pending.

21/01/2021 – In Malta the Justice Minister has been reported as confirming that the current whistleblowing law of 2013 will need to be reformed to transpose the Directive and that the Office of the Directorate for Strategy Support will become the coordinating office for implementation.

21/01/2021 – In the Netherlands, civil society have raised concerns about the Dutch Governments approach. This TI blog - Netherlands showing other EU Countries what not to do when transposing EU Whistleblower Directive - analyses the draft law proposed by the Government, which takes a minimal approach and does not expand the scope of protections to breaches of national law, despite repeated encouragement of the Commission to so. The Ministry of Internal Affairs has declared that amendments to improve the draft law are now ‘unfortunately impossible’ within the timeframe.

09/01/2021 – In Belgium a second draft proposal relevant to whistleblowing protection has been introduced to parliament. The Government had previously published a tender to outsource a preparatory investigation into transposition, the results of which are still pending.

30/12/2020 – It has been reported that the government in Denmark has communicated an intention to expand the scope of the Directive, at least to reports of sexual harassment in the workplace. 
Blueprint for Free Speech have published new research on public perceptions of whistleblowers and their response to public consultation in Spain which can be found here.