Source: gouvernement.lu
Luxembourg’s Minister of Justice, Sam Tanson, has presented a new draft law to transpose the EU Directive on Whistleblowing to Parliament and the media.
All 27 EU countries must implement the Directive into their national legal systems. The official deadline for transposition was the 17 December 2021, which Luxembourg along with most other Member States failed to meet.
Importantly, the Bill expands on some of the minimum standards required by the Directive including extension of the scope of protection beyond reports of breaches of EU law to include:
“acts or omissions which: a) are unlawful; or b) run counter to the object or purpose of directly applicable provisions of national or European law, provided that the consequence is a disturbance of the public interest”, will be protected against all forms of reprisals.”
A new independent whistleblowing office for whistleblowers is also proposed.
Whistleblower protection advocates and experts will now review the proposal both in line with the requirements of the Directive and emerging international consensus on best practice principles.