Source: 24chasa.bg
New whistleblower protection legislation has been adopted in Bulgaria. The National Assembly of Parliament adopted the Whistleblowing legislation on Friday 27 January 2023. This was a second attempt for voting on a national whistleblowing law after the failure to pass a Bill in December last year.
The final version adopted was submitted by the largest parliamentary group – GERB (Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria) on January 12, 2023. Members of Parliament were under intense time pressure, as the current parliament will be dissolved by the President in the next week.
The adopted legislation intends to transpose the minimum standard requirements of the EU Directive on whistleblowing – 2019/1937. A key difference between the adopted law and previous proposals is that the Personal Data Protection Commission (PDPC ) has been designated as the External mechanism for receiving and processing wrongdoing reports. The Ombudsman has been assigned with conducting periodic audits of the work and performance of the PDPC.
Alexandra Konstantinova of Transparency International Bulgaria said:
“Whilst a law is better than no law, much more work is needed to analyze whether the new Bulgarian legislation is in line with the standards of the Directive. During the parliamentary debates, it appeared there remains some confusion on the requirements and purpose of the Directive. Some of the new provisions lack certainty and further by-laws will need to be drafted to implement the law – so we wait to review those before we can assess compliance of the law and whether the reforms give whistleblowers in Bulgaria any fighting chance of survival.”
Members of Parliament agreed that the legislation will enter into force in 6 months which will allow both institutions to prepare for their new obligations under the framework. The obligation to establish and maintain internal whistleblowing reporting channels for private sector employers will enter into force in December 2023.