The implementation of the EU Directive on the protection of persons who report breaches of Union law (the “Whistleblowing Directive”) into local EU Member State (“MS”) laws has not been as simple as compliance professionals would have hoped. The Whistleblowing Directive sets new EU-wide minimum standards for protecting whistleblowers and requires MS to establish comprehensive whistleblower protection frameworks.
MS are permitted to expand on the protections granted within the Whistleblowing Directive in a number of areas, for example, by determining what penalties apply for violations and expanding the scope of reportable concerns. For more information, see MoFo’s Whistleblowing Resource Center.
Teams within global organizations tasked with maintaining whistleblowing hotlines have therefore been navigating the new rules imposed under the Whistleblowing Directive while also monitoring how MS continue to deviate from the Whistleblowing Directive in a number of areas.
State of affairs – Implementation efforts are picking up
Even though MS were required to implement the Whistleblowing Directive into their national laws by December 17, 2021, only a handful did so. In December 2022, we reported that just 13 MS had finalized their laws; however, in just three months an additional six MS have adopted the implementing laws—namely Austria, Bulgaria, Finland, Greece, Slovenia, and Spain.
Among the countries still to go, Italy has recently given signs that its implementation will...
Patricia White, 70, of Old Greenwich, received a nine-month prison sentence for submitting false claims for unclaimed properties to around 30 state treasuries. HARRISBURG, Pa. — Months after her br...