Dec 9 (Reuters) - Slovakia's parliament gave the final approval on Tuesday to a fast-tracked government plan to dismantle the country's whistleblower protection office and replace it with a new body, a move critics say undermines anti-corruption safeguards.
The bill, proposed by Prime Minister Robert Fico's leftist-nationalist government, will abolish the Whistleblower Protection Office (UOO) and cut short its leader's tenure.
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Fico's government, in power since 2023, had previously weakened criminal codes for financial crime, revamped the public broadcaster and pushed constitutional changes asserting national sovereignty over some European Union laws, raising criticism of the weakening of the rule of law and international commitments.
The government argues the UOO had been politically abused in the past.
The ruling parties made several changes to the bill after the European Public Prosecutor's Office warned that it would hurt reporting and investigation of corruption.
The final version would still replace the current UOO leadership and weaken the whistleblowers' position by making their protection subject to repeated re-evaluation, according to Slovak media.
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