On February 15, the European Commission referred eight member states to the European Court of Justice for failing to transpose the EU Whistleblower Directive. The EU Directive required European Union (EU) member states to pass whistleblower protection laws in line with the standards outlined in the Directive.
According to the EU, the eight member states, Czechia, Germany, Estonia, Spain, Italy, Luxembourg, Hungary and Poland, failed to transpose the Directive and did not give satisfactory replies to previous notices sent by the European Commission.
The deadline to transpose the EU Whistleblower Directive was December 21, 2021. “In January 2022, the Commission sent letters of formal notice to 24 Member States for not fully transposing and informing the Commission of the transposition measures before the deadline,” the EU explains. “Furthermore, the Commission sent reasoned opinions to 15 Member States in July 2022, and to four Member States in September 2022 for failing to communicate measures fully transposing the directive.”
Until a member state passes its own whistleblower law, the whistleblower protections laid out in the EU Directive do not apply in that country. “The state of transposition and processes in member states does not look too promising, and it may be years until there is harmonized protection of whistleblowers in the EU,” said Theo Nyreröd, an anti-corruption and whistleblowing expert affiliated with Brunel Law School in London, back in December 2021.
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