Bulgaria’s Parliament on Thursday voted, 164-38 with one abstention, to pass on first reading a Government-proposed Bill to Amend and Supplement the Act on Protection of Persons Submitting Alerts or Publicly Disclosing Information about Violations.
Another bill on the same subject matter, moved by Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria (CC-DB), was rejected by the majority.
The draft legislation that was approved broadens the scope and enhances the protection of whistleblowers and achieves full conformity with Directive (EU) 2019/1937 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 October 2019 on the protection of persons who report breaches of Union law. The revised version limits the exclusion from protection under the Act to the confidentiality of legal professional privilege to the protection of confidentiality of communications between lawyers and their clients (‘legal professional privilege’). So far the exclusion applied to members of the legal profession. Lawyers, notaries, enforcement agents and jurisconsults, who must comply with the duty of professional secrecy, will thus be protected when submitting alerts about violations of Bulgarian or EU law that threaten or harm the public interest.
According to another proposed amendment, in addition to factory and office workers, service providers, too, will be able to benefit from the provisions of the law.
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