Companies should start thinking about their whistleblowing strategy.
The EU Whistleblowing Directive aims to protect whistleblowers when making an extensive range of disclosures on breaches of EU law, including in areas related to public procurement, financial services, the protection of the environment and public health.
The deadline for transposing the Whistleblowing Directive into national law was 17 December 2021.
Belgium (together with the vast majority of EU member states) has not met this deadline. Only a preliminary draft Belgian act has been produced on which the National Labour Council and Central Economic Council have provided their advice. Further governmental discussion is expected to take place in January 2022. At this point, the Belgian act is not expected to enter into force before the summer of 2022. At the same time, smaller companies with more than 50 but fewer than 250 employees would have an additional two years to set up internal reporting channels.
For organisations, the main compliance challenge will be setting up internal reporting channels, or reviewing those already in place to ensure that they meet prescriptive EU standards. This must be done following consultation and in agreement with the social partners, where provided for by national law.
In addition to this internal whistleblowing reporting process, EU Member States must implement an external whistleblowing reporting process where...
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