Brussels, 15/12/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 15 December, the European Parliament, EU Council of Ministers and European Commission reached agreement on a draft directive to protect business confidentiality.
The agreement was reached at the fourth trialogue meeting and now needs to be validated by the member states' Permanent Representatives to the EU (COREPER) on Friday 18 December, before being put to the vote in plenary at the EP in March 2016.
The final stumbling block was one of the directive's exemptions (see EUROPE 11336) for whistleblowers. The EP wanted to introduce a series of extra safeguards, such as the principle of good faith for determining whether a whistleblower is acting for the public interest, explained a source. The EP's request was complied with and in return, it agreed to a series of demands from the Council, including leaving out any mention of criminal law in the final draft, as the member states are traditionally hostile to harmonisation or approximation in the domain of criminal law. The legislation will now only contain measures under civil law.
The European Parliament's requests were also accepted at a previous trialogue meeting on freedom of speech and information, where it won the addition of a reference to the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. In France, this question led to a sharp debate following a controversial amendment to the draft Macron law that was withdrawn in February 2015 after a violent campaign by journalists, who feared that the law would later come in through the 'back door of Europe,' although this does not seem likely. The fear is shared by many NGOs (see EUROPE 11222).
Another controversial area of the talks was about qualified staff changing jobs. Some MEPs feared that some qualified workers would be banned from working for another company due to business confidentiality concerns if they had know-how that was sensitive for their first employer. The EP was able to win its case here too.
French MEP Jean-Marie Cavada told this newsletter that he was especially pleased because his three priorities had been taken on board. He negotiated the draft directive on behalf of ALDE. His priorities covered protection of sources and whistleblowers, freedom of information and companies' ability to defend themselves property while ensuring business confidentiality. He said this balance was possible by restricting the number of people with access to sensitive information during judicial proceedings. The EP rapporteur, Constance Le Grip (EPP, France), said the directive would also offer businesses a climate of confidence to encourage scientific and technological cooperation among companies and with other research and innovation players, which would help protect the competitiveness of the European economy. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)