- EU Parliament adopts binding Directive to better protect whistleblowers
- Legislation welcomed by Blueprint but work to be done to ensure comprehensive adoption in laws of member states
- Blueprint responds with a new report which makes recommendations in areas of extradition, oversight authority, dissuasive penalties and more in implementation for EU member states
International not-for-profit Blueprint for Free Speech today welcomes a new EU Directive to protect whistleblowers across the EU’s member states, but urges caution as member states work to implement the relevant legislation over the next two years.
The new EU-wide Directive, approved by the European Parliament on Tuesday, provides minimum standards of whistleblower protection to be enacted in all Member States, legally strengthening the position of whistleblowers and protecting them from retaliation.
In a report published yesterday, Blueprint for Free Speech measures the final text against the Blueprint Principles for Whistleblower Protection, and makes key recommendations for Member States for transition into national law if the Directive is to fulfil its promise.
Eleven of the Blueprint principles are covered fully by the new text with a further eight partially fulfilled by the Directive text. However, four principles are either completely absent, or left to the discretion of Member States.
Once the Directive is approved by Ministers, EU Member States will have two years to pass their own legislation to give effect to the Directive in national law. How this transposition process is implemented will make a difference in how effective - and how comprehensive - these protections are in practice.
The organisation also makes a series of recommendations for transposition into national law. If Member States properly consider these, they can make sure they provide their citizens with whistleblower protection measures that will be among the most advanced in the world.
These are:
- Extend the scope of reportable wrongdoing, to cover reporting of any wrongdoing that harms or threatens the public interest.
- Limit exclusions based on the way information was acquired, to avoid the whistleblowers being penalised for what is needed to make legitimate acts of public interest disclosure.
- Introduce obligations to provide anonymous channels and follow-up on anonymous reports, to avoid authorities risking missing vital information reported in this way.
- Provide an extensive list of remedies for whistleblowers who face retaliation.
- Introduce dissuasive penalties for retaliation, including guidelines for the circumstances of “imminent or manifest danger” under which the Directive allows whistleblowers to go straight to the media. This might include an indicative list of instances where the threshold would be met.
- Limiting restrictions on reporting to the media and third parties.
- Specific procedures for national security and intelligence whistleblowing, which currently falls outside of the remit of the Directive.
- The introduction of a dedicated oversight authority, a specific independent public institution responsible for overseeing the implementation of whistleblower legislation.
- To reduce the risk of retaliation, Member States should shorten the timeline for both internal and external reports.
- Allowing courts to order that a whistleblower is not to be extradited to another country if in connection with a public interest disclosure.
Dr Suelette Dreyfus, Executive Director of Blueprint for Free Speech, comments:
‘Blueprint for Free Speech welcomes the adoption of this new Directive, which will strengthen organisational integrity across EU member states. While the focus is on disclosures inside organisations first, it is encouraging that whistleblowers who disclose externally – such as to the media – will in certain circumstances benefit from the same level of protection.
However, civil society groups and academic experts will vigilant in the public interest to oversee how individual EU member state governments to make sure the EU Directive is implemented into national laws. There will be the temptation for some governments who don't want to be accountable to try to ‘fudge’ the national transposition of the Directive.’
To read the report in full visit https://blueprintforfreespeech.net/en/eu-whistleblowing-directive-strengths-and-shortcomings/.