Source: e-seimas.lrs.lt
In early March 2021, the Ministry of Justice sent out a draft law to transpose the EU Directive on whistleblowing to various stakeholders, requesting their feedback on the proposed amendments. The draft legislation “Law of the Republic of Lithuania on the Protection of Reporters” is publicly available here.
Stakeholders opinions on draft law have now been published.
Based on the previous conversations with the Ministry representatives, the institutions known to have received an invitation to comment on the draft Bill included Transparency International Lithuania (TI Lithuania); the Prosecutor General’s Office; and the Special Investigation Service. It is not known whether other organisations were consulted. Institutions were required to provide their opinions by the 17th of March 2021.
TI Lithuania’s opinion paper urges the government to consider establishing a working group for transposition and public consultation on more detailed provisions, to enable wider discussion on the implication of implementation and how the proposed framework would work in practice.
On the 24th March 2021, Whistleblowing International Network and Transparency International published a joint report on the progress of transposition across all 27 Member States. Lithuania was found to have made minimal progress towards implementation and the lack of public information on steps taken meant the process was lacking in transparency and inclusivity of process.