EU Whistleblowing Monitor – December 2021 Roundup
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 December 2021.
As of 31 December 2021, it has been two weeks since the official deadline of 17 December 2021 for all Member States to have fully transposed the Directive.
Transposition remains ‘in progress’ in at least 25 countries with two Member States still listed as ‘not started’ - Hungary and Luxembourg.
Five Member States have now have adopted transposition laws:
Denmark’s ‘Forslag til Lov om beskyttelse af whistleblowere’ was adopted 24 June 2021 and entered into force 17 December 2021.
Sweden’s ‘Lagrådsremiss Genomförande av visselblåsardirektivet’ was adopted 29 September 2021 and entered into force on 17 December 2021.
Portugal’s Proposta de Lei n.º 91/XIV and others was adopted 26 November 2021, published 20 December 2021 and enter into force 6 months later.
Lithuania’s Lietuvos Respublikos Pranešėjų Apsaugos Įstatymas was adopted on 16 December 2021 and will enter into force on 15 February 2021.
Malta’s ATT sabiex jemenda l-Att dwar il-Protezzjoni ta’ Informatur, Kap. 527 passed the third reading on 14 December 2021.
No country can be yet considered fully ‘transposed.’
Draft Bills are also issued in eleven countries including:
There are also two important draft proposals developed with or by civil society:
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The ‘Waserman’ Bill currently being discussed in Parliament in France - available here
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Xnet template Law, registered in Parliament in Spain - available here
Country Updates:
A new whistleblowing law has been passed in Malta and in Lithuania.
In Estonia, the whistleblowing Bill has been approved by Government and passed to Parliament.
There are media reports of a preliminary draft law not yet publicly available in Austria and in Cyprus.
A draft whistleblowing law has now been circulated for comment in Slovenia.
A Bill of amendments in Slovakia is in the interdepartmental comments stage.
A draft law is now scheduled on governments agenda in Croatia.
A new draft law has been published in Romania.
Media reports on delays in transposition in Spain.
In Ireland a watchdog has urged the government to improve the whistleblowing law.
Resources:
WIN and TI have published a progress update on the official transposition deadline.
The Network of European Integrity and Whistleblowing Authorities (NEIWA) has adopted a new Dublin Declaration on transposition on 10 December 2021.
A new article on the impact and costs of Whistleblowing has been published open access in the Journal of Business Ethics.
The ‘WhistlePro’ Research Project on Workplace Whistleblower Protection in the V4 Countries, France and Slovenia financed by the International Visegrad Fund has now been published open access in several languages.
WIN and Republika have published a statement and blog raising alarm on Malta’s new whistleblowing law. Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe General Rapporteur on the protection of whistleblowers has strongly criticized the reforms.
Blueprint for Free Speech have published an article on Spain missing the deadline for transposition.
WIN and it’s Member Protect have published a blog looking at lessons learned from 25 years of UK whistleblowing legislation for implementing the Directive.
All these and more can be found on the Monitor Resources and Roundup pages.