Source: ti-austria.at
Transparency International Austria is campaigning for the Austrian government to expand on the EU Directive on whistleblowing to cover national criminal and competition law.
The NGO has issued a paper ‘Implementing the EU whistleblower protection Directive in Austria’ which calls for the extension of scope and making further recommendations for the transposition process:
Media coverage of the campaign raises awareness of the issue in Austria, which currently has no comprehensive whistleblowing protection law:
‘Furthermore, the organisation is campaigning for reporter protection to be compiled into one framework law in order to collate the existing individual regulations on reporter protection in a clear manner and thus to create legal certainty. In addition, the protection should also be standardised for public servants. Whilst the EU directive does apply to the same extent for civil servants, the reporting procedure is determined by civil service legal obligations in the Austrian public sector. This obliges the affected individuals to report breaches to supervisors in principle. According to this, when it comes to the implementation of the EU directive, it should also be taken into consideration that those employed in the public sector are provided with standardised protection by the directive.’