EU Directive 2019/1931 was adopted on 19 October 2021 and requires all 27 Member States to incorporate or ‘transpose’ it so it becomes national law in their country.
It is up to each Member State to decide how to implement the new rules. Each EU government must adopt a law to achieve the objectives of the Directive within a two-year transposition time frame. The official deadline was 17 December 2021.
Member States are listed as 'Not Started' where no known steps have been taken towards transposing the EU Directive on Whistleblowing into national law, or if the EU Whistleblowing Monitor has not been updated with any relevant information. If you have information regarding the current state of the transposition progress of any Member State, please see our About page on how to contact us.
The official deadline for all 27 Member States to fully transpose the EU Directive on Whistleblowing into national law was the 17 December 2021. Countries which have made progress but not yet adopted new law to bring the national legal system in line with the minimum standards required by the Directive are listed as “Delayed.”
All steps taken to transpose a Directive from the establishment of a working group, public or external stakeholder consultation on a draft proposal to the presentation of a Bill to Parliament up until the final adoption of a new law will be included in this category. as well as any other relevant campaigns, resources or cases relevant to the operation of the national whistleblowing protection framework.
Once a Member State has adopted a new law to transpose the EU Directive on Whistleblowing into national law that country will be listed within the ‘Law Adopted’ category.
Adopting new legislation does not mean that country has completed transposition. Once passed, the new law may not enter into force until a later date and additional regulations or reform of other areas of the national framework may be required, such as the establishment of new public authorities.
Each Member State must report on its transposition to the EU Commission. If a country fails to properly transpose the EU Directive on time the Commission may commence infringement procedures. EU countries’ late transposition of Directives is problematic and prevents citizens and businesses from benefiting from the tangible benefits of EU law. Proceedings may be brought before the Court of Justice of the EU and can lead to a conviction which may result in a financial penalty.
As a general principle of EU law, citizens should not suffer detrimentally due to delayed or incorrect transposition of a Directive. Certain aspects of the Directive may have ‘direct’ or ‘indirect’ vertical effect which means an EU citizen may be able to invoke it’s provisions against an EU country in court even if they not yet properly implemented.
Once the national authority has communicated the measures it has taken to transpose the Directive to the EU Commission and compatibility of that countries new law with the minimum standards of the Directive have been confirmed that country will be categorised as ‘Transposed.’ This may not occur until several months after the official 17 December 2021 deadline and after a countries new law has come into effect.