The clock is ticking – according to Transparency International’s publication, more than half of EU member states are yet to submit draft legislation to implement EU Directive 2019/1937 which will protect those reporting breaches of EU law. But what is the reason for this? Is the issue insignificant? Hardly. Protecting people who have the courage to report violations should not be punishable through reprisal. Unfortunately, the reality is different. Since the Snowden, diesel or rotten meat scandals, the way whistle-blowers are dealt with has caused many people not to report violations but, instead, to accept them and move towards retirement as painlessly as possible. Snowden had to emigrate, the employee who released the video of the canteen during the COVID19 pandemic at the well-known slaughterhouse was summarily dismissed. The truck driver who reported the relabelling of rotten meat was mobbed out of the company.
The sad and deeply moving stories of whistle-blowers, and the suffering they and their families experienced, could fill entire libraries. And yet member states refuse to legislate. Is it because they fear the administrative burden? Or because they would have to divert money not allocated for this purpose from other departments or because they would have to deal with the inevitable fallout after reports are published? Or is it the lobby of private and powerful companies who want to continue to solve their problems their way? Many questions that preoccupy the government of the member states concerned. And what will the European Commission do if the member states cannot bring themselves to pass a law to this effect?
It remains to be seen how society and politics will resolve this dilemma.
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