Brussels (Brussels Morning Newspaper) – The European Union Court of Justice on March 6, 2025 sanctioned 5 nations for failure to enact laws that will further protect whistleblowers who expose fraud, tax fraud, data breaches and other illegalities.
The court fined Germany 34 million euros, whereas the Czech Republic had to pay 2.3 million euros and Hungary 1.75 million euros. Estonia and Luxembourg received a total of 500,000 euros in fines.
The European Commission has requested the Court of Justice to declare that, by failing to adopt the provisions necessary to comply with the Whistleblowers directive, Luxembourg, Germany, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Estonia have failed to meet their responsibilities under that directive. It has also called for financial damages to be imposed on all those Member nations in the form of lump sums.
According to statement of CJEU, it said,
“Emphasising the importance of the transposition of that directive in view of the high level of protection it affords to whistleblowers who report a breach of EU law, the Court upholds the Commission’s actions, rejecting the arguments put forward by the Member States concerned, and imposes on them the financial penalties set out in the table below.”
What is the EU whistleblower directive and why does it matter?
A consensus among EU member nations in 2019 brought in EU-wide regulations requiring firms to set up internal channels for whistleblowers and protect them from reprisals such as sackings, bump and even litigation. The regulation was proposed by the European Commission to bring in EU-wide rules demanding companies to set up internal channels.
Whistleblower protection is presently controlled by national authorities in the 28 EU countries, resulting in vastly different treatment, with no regulations at all in some countries.
As reported by the EU Commission, persons who received such information in the context of their work-related actions and report regarding it (‘whistleblowers’) provide national and EU enforcement systems. This allows to prevent and address violations of EU law.
“Providing whistleblowers with strong protection against retaliation is essential to encourage reporting and strengthen the effectiveness of EU law. Giving whistleblowers this protection is also key for safeguarding their freedom of expression, enshrined in Article 11 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union,” it said.
