16/03/2017 (Agence Europe) – On Thursday 16 March in Strasbourg, the Conference of Presidents of the political groups at the European Parliament ultimately failed to tackle the question of steering through the own initiative report for the draft directive on the protection of whistleblowers. This is because no amiable agreement on it was forthcoming at the level of the Presidents of the ALDE and S&D groups, Guy Verhofstadt (Belgium) and Gianni Pittella (Italy) respectively or at the level of the legal affairs committee coordinators (JURI) for unblocking the dossier. The two political groups have been arguing over the report for several months (see EUROPE 11715, 11644) and seem to have gradually got bogged down in it, to the extent that some observers are concerned that it could be postponed indefinitely, despite the new ruling by the Luxembourg Court of Appeal on 15 March against the whistleblowers who made the disclosures in the so-called “Luxleaks” affair (see EUROPE 11746). The European Commission launched a public consultation on the issue on 3 March last (see EUROPE 11738). (PH)