Source: transparency.org
Transparency International have published an article which discusses the Dutch governments approach to the transposition of the EU Directive on whistleblowing into national law.
The current Dutch draft Bill demonstrates that the Government has chosen to adopt a minimal approach to the transposition of the Directive. This is despite repeated encouragement to widen the scope to cover breaches of national law.
The authors of ‘ The Netherlands showing other EU Countries what not to do when transposing EU Whistleblower Directive’ state:
“It is distressing that the quality of the law is apparently sacrificed to procedures and deadlines. Why has the Bill been issued for consultation if the Ministry had no intention to take the inputs received into account? This seems like a foolish exercise and anything but a transparent and participatory democratic process.”
Transposition of the Directive must be completed before the deadline of 17 December 2021. The Ministry of Internal Affairs has declared that amendments to improve the draft law are now ‘unfortunately impossible.’
TI Netherlands official response to the public consultation on the draft proposal can be found here.
Significant delays are expected in the process following a change in government in January with general elections to take place in March 2021. Progress in transposition will be updated to a dedicated web page here.