Five well-known European whistleblowers wrote directly to EU Vice President Frans Timmerman and Commissioner Věra Jourová calling on them to ensure a new law to protect whistleblowers across all 28 Member States removes any doubt that whistleblowers are protected for going directly to the competent authorities.
The whistleblowers – Antoine Deltour (multinational tax avoidance schemes in Luxembourg,LuxLeaks)Andrea Franzoso (high value fraud committed by President of company, Italy) Raphaël Halet (multinational tax avoidance schemes in Luxembourg, LuxLeaks) Brigitte Heinisch (chronic understaffing causing severe ill-treatment of elderly people in care, Germany) Ana Garrido Ramos (corrupt practices in municipal Town Hall, leading to Gürtel scandal, Spain – also sent their letter to the European Council representing state parties in the negotiations on a new EU law.
The Council’s position not only rejects decades-long, hard won protections for whistleblowers in Europe (see Ireland for instance) but seems determined to turn a law that should be designed to ensure the free flow of information for the responsible exercise of institutional authority, into an information control system to protect the reputation of employers.