16/02/2017 (Agence Europe) – On Wednesday 15 February, the European Commission announced that it had sent reasoned opinions to Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands and Poland, as these countries failed to meet the deadline for the transposition into national law of the rules to protect whistleblowers. In 2015, the Commission adopted an implementing directive concerning notifications to the competent authorities of potential or actual violations of the regulation on market abuses (2015/2392). This act contains provisions aiming to protect individuals notifying these violations and also defines procedures to protect informants and the persons concerned by a notification, including the conditions to monitor notifications made by informants and protection measures for personal data. The member states had until 3 July 2016 to transpose these rules. The four countries in question received letters of formal notice in September of last year. They now have two months to comply with the Commission's requests, or the Commission may refer the matter to the CJEU. (EL)