Whistleblowing in Europe – new report by Transparency International
Transparency International has analysed national whistleblowing systems in 27 EU member states. They find that only four countries (Luxemburg, Romania, Slovenia and the United Kingdom) have legal frameworks for whistleblower protection that are considered to be advanced. Of the other 23 countries, 16 have partial legal protections for employees who report breaches and the remaining seven countries have either very limited or no legal frameworks.
They further find that whistleblower provisions that are currently in place contain loopholes and exceptions. The result being that employees who believe they are protected from retaliation could discover, after they blow the whistle, that they actually have no legal recourse.
UNI Europa Finance is actively advocating for strengthened whistleblowing rules, and effectively so, as the trade union movement has managed to pass several amendments in legislative texts on financial regulation. These changes will ensure anonymity for employees reporting potential or actual breaches through both internal and external whistleblowing structures and can be found in Market Abuse Regulation, MiFID II and Capital Requirements Directive IV.
Recently we have also noticed that what we have been pushing for in numerous directives and regulations is now being included directly in the legislative proposals. This is the case with the recast of the Anti-Money Laundering Directive, where strong whistle-blowing protection mechanisms are foreseen. These are envisaged to be internal, as well as external, independent and anonymous channels for reporting potential or actual breaches. This shows that our engagement in the process leaves a mark where it matters.
Encouragingly, Transparency International’s report also finds that several EU countries in recent years have taken steps to strengthen whistleblower rights, including Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Hungary, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, Romania and Slovenia. Countries that have issued proposals or have announced plans for proposed laws include Finland, Greece, Ireland, the Netherlands and Slovakia.
The report “Whistleblowing in Europe: Legal protections for whistleblowers in the EU”
Video with whistleblowers from around the world speaking out against corruption and wrongdoing.