Call on protection and renumeration of whistleblowers by the European Parliament

In a resolution adopted by the European Parliament on 25 November the Parliamnet calls on the Commission to propose, by June 2016, an EU legislative framework for the effective protection of whistleblowers and the like; stresses that it is not acceptable that citizens and journalists can be subject to prosecution rather than legal protection when, acting in the public interest, they disclose information or report suspected misconduct, wrongdoing, fraud or illegal activity, in particular in cases of tax avoidance, tax evasion and money laundering, or any other conduct infringing the fundamental principles of the EU, such as the principle of sincere cooperation.

The Parliament also calls on the Commission to consider a range of tools for ensuring such protection against unjustified legal prosecution, economic sanctions and discrimination, while also ensuring the protection of confidentiality and trade secrets; draws attention, in this connection, to the example of the US Dodd-Frank Act, which both remunerates whistleblowers for providing the authorities with original information and protects them from legal prosecution and job loss, bearing in mind that such remuneration should not be a stimulus for publishing business-sensitive information; proposes the creation of an independent European body responsible for collecting this information and carrying out investigations, as well as a pan-European whistleblower common fund, to ensure that whistleblowers receive adequate financial assistance.