MEPs in the Legal Affairs Committee adopted by an overwhelming majority (22 votes in favour, 1 abstention) on Tuesday morning, 20 November, the directive to protect whistleblowers, on which Virginie Rozière (S&D) of France was a European Parliament rapporteur. In particular, they supported the compromise amendments extending the legal basis of the text to Article 153 TFEU and making the three-step reporting mechanism more flexible.
"I thank all the shadow rapporteurs. It was a fairly intense negotiation, I think it can be seen in the votes", said Ms Rozière.
Thus, a fairly broad consensus was reached among the groups to introduce Article 153. MEPs amend Article 1 on the scope of the directive by adding European legislative acts relating to employment, working conditions, workers' rights and the principle of equal treatment for men and women. The annexes listing the legislative texts are amended accordingly - annexes that will become indicative and not closed.
In particular, MEPs should extend the scope of the directive, in addition to whistleblowers, to "facilitators", i.e. staff helping whistleblowers to report. Objective: to protect these "facilitators" from any reprisal by the employer.
The three-step reporting (internal reporting, external reporting to a competent authority, public reporting) has been made more flexible to remove any hierarchy between the first and second steps. Public reporting may only be carried out directly in certain cases, in particular in cases of clear collusion between the entity involved in a wrongdoing and the external competent authority, in cases of risk of destruction of evidence or in cases of urgency.
In addition, alerts should be treated as confidential and if the identity of the anonymous whistleblower is revealed in any way, that person should enjoy the protection of the Directive.
Another major point is that Member States will have to set up a single public authority to advise potential whistleblowers to ensure that they are protected by the Directive.
The role of trade unions has been strengthened, in particular to define internal reporting mechanisms within organisations and in support.
An electoral vote? The text received broad support, in particular from the S&D, EPP, ALDE, Green, GUE/NGL and Italian EFDD groups. Unlike other legislative texts, such as the Regulation on the coordination of social security systems (see other news), the Whistleblower Directive benefited from the proximity of the European elections: it was difficult to pursue weakening such a media exposed text.
However, the German EPP MEP Axel Voss would have had a rather restrictive position throughout the process on the scope of the directive and the public's awareness of it. Moreover, he did not hide his bitterness at the end of the vote, indicating that he was in favour of maintaining a three-step rather than a two-step hierarchy of alerts.
Inter-institutional negotiations are in full swing. The Council has not yet adopted a general approach, and is expected to do so at the Justice and Home Affairs formation meeting on 6 and 7 December. But Article 153 should also stimulate lengthy debates between the legal services of the Parliament and the Council.
Article 153 provides, in conjunction with Article 154 of the TFEU, for prior consultation of the social partners before proposing a legislative act of the European Commission. However, if this article is introduced, the legislative proposal could no longer be in line with the European Treaties since it has not been the subject of prior consultation of the social partners.
A vote welcomed by civil society and trade unions. "The European Parliament today has rightly sought to strengthen protections for these brave whistleblowers across the EU", Transparency International on Twitter declared. Martin Jefflén, President of Eurocadres (which represents the professional and managerial staff union), also welcomed the vote, saying it was a "great day for transparency and workers' rights" before recognising that some passages and recitals still needed to be improved at interinstitutional meetings.
The Confederal Secretary of the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), Esther Lynch, welcomed the vote, in particular the extension of Article 153, and the easing of the alert, which is now only a two-step process. On the other hand, she regretted that trade unions were not explicitly designated to support whistleblowers internally. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens with Mathieu Solal)