Source: N/A
The legislative process to transpose the EU Directive on whistleblowing has started over.
It has been almost 3 months since the 17 December 2021 deadline for all Member States to fully transpose the Directive. Only FIVE Member States passed legislation prior to the deadline. The Czech Republic had originally been a front runner being the first country to have made substantive progress early-on in the two year time-frame for transposition. However due to the elections held last year, the Transposition Bill was not passed in time and the process had to start over.
Eleven delayed countries, including the Czech Republic have to date issued draft proposals. No country can be said to have fully transposed the Directive and information on the Commission website suggests that infringement proceedings have been initiated in 24 countries.
An amended version of the previously developed Bill will now be introduced to interdepartmental proceedings in March 2022. Modifications in two areas are anticipated, namely regards anonymous reporting and the scope of the types of breaches which will be afforded protection. The exact nature of these amendments is not publicly available yet.
Now the deadline has passed, there is consensus amongst legal experts that despite partial implementation of obligations, the Directive has direct effect and thus some provisions can be considered applicable to EU citizens.
Progress has been very slow in Czech Republic – Civil Society continues to analyse the new provisions to understand what the law will bring.