Source: transparency.nl
A new whistleblowing law to transpose the EU Directive on Whistleblowing has been adopted in The Netherlands.
The Senate approved the legislation, which seeks to transpose the EU Directive on Whistleblowing into national law, making it the fourteenth country to adopt legislation to implement the directive.
The law will require most legal entities in The Netherlands to update their whistleblowing procedures, appoint an independent reporting body, enable anonymous reporting, and inform their employees about competent external reporting channels, which could be as many as eight.
Anti-corruption NGO Transparency International Netherlands has published an analysis highlighting key amendments which were successfully campaigned for during the legislative procedure as well as key areas the new law could have gone further still to meet international best practice principles for whistleblower legislation:
“Although compromises had to be made on the final law to protect whistleblowers, Transparency International Netherlands (TI-NL) is convinced that this law is an improvement on the current Whistleblowers House Act. TI-NL is pleased to have been able to contribute to this [law].”