Brussels, 02/03/2015 (Agence Europe) - European Ombudsman Emily O'Reilly expressed her disappointment in a press release on Monday 2 March that only two out of nine European institutions have so far put in place internal rules, which have been compulsory since January 2014, to protect whistleblowers.
The ombudsman made inquiries of the Commission, the Parliament, the Council, the Court of Justice, the Court of Auditors, the External Action Service, the Economic and Social Committee, the Committee of the Regions and the Data Protection Supervisor. “Only the Commission and the Court of Auditors have introduced internal whistleblowing rules”, she notes.
“The public needs to know that the EU institutions welcome whistleblowing and protect whistleblowers against retaliation to make sure that serious misconduct or wrongdoing in the EU administration are brought to light. While I am disappointed that seven key EU institutions have not yet adopted such rules, I commend the Commission and the Court of Auditors for having done so”, O'Reilly stated.
Since 1 January 2014, all EU institutions have been required to bring in rules on the protection of whistleblowers, their access to information and the procedure for dealing with complaints lodged by whistleblowers about the treatment they have received. To ensure that the administration of the EU does all it can to reassure people that they should report anything untoward that they discover, the ombudsman opened an investigation on her own initiative in July of last year into the situation in the nine institutions named above, the ombudsman's office says on its website. All employees working for the EU administration have the duty to speak up if they become aware of serious irregularities in the course of their work, the ombudsman states. She sent the nine institutions a list of questions, asking, for example, how they protect whistleblowers, and how they encourage persons from outside the EU institutions to blow the whistle. Currently an inter-institutional committee is discussing whether the institutions can adopt a common approach to their obligations in this area. The ombudsman encourages the committee to finalise its discussions as soon as possible. (Solenn Paulic)