European Union officials have reprimanded 26 of the EU’s 27 countries for failing to meet Brussels’ deadline to enact new protections for whistleblowers. The action further demonstrates the countries’ already weak commitment to shield corruption witnesses from retaliation.
Known as an “infringement” action, the European Commission announced on Feb. 9 it had sent formal notices to Portugal and Sweden for delaying the activation of their new whistleblower laws. The two countries met the EU’s deadline to pass the laws by Dec. 17. But the Commission cited them because their laws don’t take effect until this June 19 and July 17, respectively. If Portugal and Sweden do not fix the problem within two months, the Commission could escalate the situation by sending a formal request to comply.
In January the Commission sent formal notices to 24 other EU countries for missing the December deadline, which was set by an EU Directive passed more than two years earlier, in October 2019. Denmark and Lithuania passed new whistleblower laws before the deadline but they did not take effect in time. Cyprus, France and Latvia have since passed new laws.
Only Malta, which ironically has one of Europe’s poorest-performing whistleblower protection systems, is in full compliance with the Directive. Its law was passed on Nov. 16 and took effect on Dec. 17.
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