Source: blueprintforfreespeech.net
On 17 June 2020, the Spanish Congress voted against an anti-corruption proposal that aimed to transpose the EU Whistleblower Directive into national law.
Civil society experts have said that this is good news: Earlier this week NGOs published an explanation as to why it was a weak proposal that would not fulfil the minimum standards required by the EU Directive on whistleblowing.
With 178 votes for NO and 159 YES, the majority in the Spanish Congress rejected the bill on the basis that the proposal was “opportunistic” and “insufficient”.
Those who voted against included the governing political parties PSOE and Unidas Podemos, as well as Esquerra Republicana and PNV (Partido Nacionalista Vasco).
The parliamentary debate affirmed how fundamental whistleblower protection is to the fight against corruption, although the discussion also turned from the technical aspects proposed law into the political conflict that often take over in the Spanish Congress.
After two hours’ debate, the proposal, supported by the two conservative parties Partido Popular and VOX, was finally blocked. PSOE, the stronger party in the coalition in Government, announced that the Ministry of Justice would establish a Working Group, populated by representatives from different relevant sectors for transposition, to work out a formal proposal for reform.
The group designed with the task has until 17 December 2021 to complete their work. Civil society hopes this process will lead to a better, more considered proposal for introducing whistleblower protection in Spain.
After a period of relative silence, Spain has now started down the road to a national transposition of the EU Directive to protect whistleblowers.