European Parliament approves first EU-wide rules to protect whistleblowers
Date
16 Apr 2019
Sections
Social Europe & Jobs
The European Parliament today approved new rules to protect whistleblowers. For the first time those who expose malpractice or wrongdoing at work will be protected wherever they are in the EU.
S&D MEP and European Parliament negotiator for the protection of whistleblowers Virginie Rozière said:
“Whistleblowers play an essential role in our democracies, ensuring that corruption and dodgy dealings are exposed. Too often, these people face the consequences while those they expose continue to get away with it. The proposals we have backed today will help redress the balance, ensuring that whistleblowers have legal protection wherever they are in Europe.
“Despite strong resistance from conservative MEPs and some national governments, we have secured a strong set of protections. Whistleblowers will be able to decide whether to report wrongdoing through internal channels or directly to an external body. This is essential as in many cases reporting within an organisation is not an option.
“The fight to protect whistleblowers does not end here. We want to see the scope of this agreement expanded to cover social rights and we’ve secured a review clause to ensure that the European Commission looks at doing this in the next legislature. We also ensured that these are only minimum standards, so national governments can still provide even stronger protections.
“We must never stop fighting to protect those expose corruption or wrongdoing.”