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The Ministry of Justice in Bulgaria has summoned the government working group for the transposition of EU Directive (2019/1937).
Two online meetings took place in July 2021 with discussions focusing on the proposed material scope of the protection, whether to adopt a new stand-alone law or make amendments to the existing legislation and whether to have a single or multiple competent authorities for external reporting.
So far, the majority of opinions are in favour of:
- adopting a new stand-alone dedicated whistleblowing protection law;
- broadening the material scope beyond the Directive’s minimum standard (breaches of EU law)
- establishing reporting channels across multiple competent authorities
NGO Transparency International Bulgaria, an invited Member of the working group, recommended defining the material scope as broadly as possible, ideally in line with the Council of Europe Recommendation CM/Rec(2014)7. This proposition was supported by the Ministry of Justice and other civil society representatives – the Center for Study of Democracy and the Bulgarian Institute for Legal Initiatives.
The Directive must be transposed fully before 17 December 2021. Progress has been slow in Bulgaria – the country has been governed by a caretaker government appointed by the President after Parliament was dissolved when parties failed to form a government following elections in April 2021. The caretaker Government has limited powers with regard to initiatives for legislative proposals. A regular Government is currently being elected by Parliament.