At the meeting of coordinators that took place at the end of the afternoon on Tuesday 15 May, French MEP Virginie Rozière was nominated as rapporteur for the directive on whistle-blower protection for the legal affairs (JURI) committee.
Rozière piloted the own initiative report on whistle-blower protection in 2017 (see EUROPE 11890) and was thus approached (see EUROPE 12018). The names of the shadow rapporteurs will become known with time, EUROPE is told. The decision on which committee should be attributed with the legislative file is expected to be made at the plenary session in Strasbourg at the end of May. The JURI committee is in a good position.
"The European Parliament will play its role fully in the improvement of this directive so that the protection it proposes can be as effective as possible", Rozière stated, not on the occasion of her nomination but on that of the suspension of the ruling on whistle-blower Antoine Deltour (the LuxLeaks whistle-blower) by the Court of Appeal in Luxembourg, which took place the same day.
For Rozière, this was a healthy decision because it erases the sentence pronounced earlier by the Luxembourg lawcourt, but it also shows the need to strengthen European law through the adoption of a horizontal directive, she says, given that Deltour's guilt continues to be recognised by the Luxembourg Court of Appeal. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)