Proposal regarding new EU-wide directive concerning whistleblower protection

On 23 April, the European Commission presented a proposal for a new minimum standard directive regarding protection for whistleblowers who report breaches of EU law.

The proposed directive will protect whistleblowers from reprisals and will guarantee protection not only for a company’s own employees, but also for others that are in a power imbalance that can result in a fear of blowing the whistle; for example subcontractor employees.

The directive will provide protection for those reporting on breaches of EU law within the fields of public procurement, financial services, money laundering, terrorist financing, product safety, transport safety, environmental protection, nuclear safety, food and feed safety, animal health and welfare, public health, consumer protection, privacy and security of network and information systems, the EU competition rules, breaches and violations of corporate tax rules and damage to the EU’s financial interests.

Through the directive, companies with more than 50 employees or an annual turnover exceeding €10 million will be required to have in place an internal reporting system that ensures that the information being reported through it will be kept confidential. The companies will be required to follow-up on the whistleblower’s report within three months.

IMM welcomes the proposal, which focuses on the important role played by whistleblowers in anti-corruption.

– Whistleblowers have a very important role in the fight against corruption. In order to work efficiently with anti-corruption, you need to have an environment where signals regarding irregularities will be noticed. Preventing a negative culture of silence is an important part of creating such an environment, but it is also important to have safe reporting channels, says Natali Phalén, Secretary General at IMM.

In the survey ”Breaking the Silence”, carried out by IMM during the fall, a clear majority of the 38 small and medium sized enterprises included in the survey welcomed a statutory requirement to have whistleblowing system as a confidential protection for whistleblowers.

– There almost always exists knowledge about irregularities within an organization. Because of this, it is necessary to have systems that ensures that such knowledge can be picked up on, says Natali Phalén.