Bundesrat members from the conservative opposition have rejected a proposed whistleblower protection lawImage: Wolfgang Kumm/dpa/picture alliance
An draft law from the German government to bring the country in line with EU directives has been stopped for now. The law seeks to protect whistleblowers from facing reprisals.
A draft law to introduce protective measures for whistleblowers in Germany was brought to a halt by the conservative opposition in the Bundesrat on Friday.
The move has thrown a stumbling block in front of an attempt by the coalition government to push through delayed legislation that the EU demanded be passed by 2021 at the latest.
The law would have seen companies with 50 or more employees obliged to establish a mechanism by which whistleblowers could reveal problems or criminal activity without fear of reprisals.
But the conservative opposition bloc of the Christian Democratic and the Christian Social Unions (CDU/CSU) voted against the proposals — as the parties already had done in the Bundestag.
"Whoever doesn't protect whistleblowers, protects abuse, corruption and manipulation," Green party lawmaker Irene Mihalic wrote on Twitter after the decision was announced.
The Bundesrat — in some ways comparable with the US Senate — is the counterbalance to the elected German parliament, the Bundestag.
It is made up of representatives from Germany's 16 federal states, several of which are controlled by CDU/CSU-led...
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