Brussels, 07/07/2016 (Agence Europe) - During a debate on Wednesday 6 July, the European Commission Vice President in Charge of Employment and Growth, Jyrki Katainen, put something of a dampener on the hopes of a large number of MEPs for the implementation of a transversal and minimum European legislative framework to protect whistle-blowers in the private and public sectors.
According to the Vice President, the Commission legal services are still seeking a solid legal basis for this kind of legislative project. It has therefore proved difficult to provide a precise date to MEPs who are calling for this project, such as Julia Reda (Greens/EFA, Germany), who urged the Commission to include this legislative project in its 2017 work programme. The German MEP informed us that “What is lacking in the statement by Commissioner Katainen is a clear public commitment to put forward legislation”. This regret is even more significant given that the Council clearly said that it was open to the project during the debates, Reda explained.
The announcement about the sentencing of Antoine Deltour and Raphaël Halet in the “Luxleaks” affair has also proved a wakeup call. Virginie Rozière (S&D, France) therefore asked how much time did they still need to be able to see such a legislative framework emerge, given that national protection in this connection “when it exists” is too heterogeneous, imperfect and sectoral. Constance Le Grip (EPP, France), pointed out that if the “business secrecy” directive, of which she was also the rapporteur (EUROPE 11532), had already been in application, the judgment made by the Luxembourg Court would not have been possible.
In reply to a question put to her by EUROPE, Le Grip did say that she did not find Katainen's statement any kind of surprise. The MEP was not expecting the announcement of any date or even legal basis from the Commission. She believes that the Commissioner “went right to the end of what he could say”. She explained to us that the legal services in the different institutions were working hard to define a solid legal basis. The MEP also said that they needed to wait for Parliamentary work to resume after the summer recess to see the development of solid proposals take shape, with the own initiative report on whistle-blowers from the Legal Affairs Committee (JURI).
Certain possible ways forward have already been provided, mainly by the Greens, which are behind the initiative on this dossier. They proposed a specific draft directive on whistle-blowers (EUROPE 11546). They also proposed Article 151 and Article 153 of the TFEU as the legal basis for social policy. Le Grip described this as a clever but “uncertain proposal”. The Liberals prefer Article 114 on the European internal market. During the debate Fabio de Masi (GUE/NGL), proposed Article 325 of the TFEU on the protection of the Union's financial interests. Reda said that this would be an interesting basis but would be too restrictive for a transversal directive. According to Reda, it would be perfectly possible to integrate several different kinds of legal basis. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)