Source: parlament.mt
A new draft Bill entitled ‘Protection of the Whistleblower (Amendment) Act 2021 to amend and expand the protection of the current legislation – the Whistleblower Act (Cap 527) of 2013 has been published in Malta to transpose the EU Directive 209/1937.
Anti-corruption and freedom of expression experts will now be looking closely to analyse the proposal in line with the minimum standards of the Directive and emerging international best practice principles. The Governments approach to the process so far has been criticised for lacking in transparency and openness and not being inclusive with civil society stakeholders keen to help inform the scope of the new framework. It is feared that given the imminent official deadline for transposition (17 December 2021) that the Government will rush through a law which may not protect whistleblowers in practice.