REPORTS
Failure of Greece to fulfil its obligation to ensure the protection of public interest witnesses – infringement: INFR(2022)0061
Each Member State of the European Union must fully apply EU law. The body responsible for identifying possible violations of EU law is the European Commission. Where a Member State does not apply EU law and breaches its obligations under the EU Treaties, the European Commission may open a formal infringement procedure under Articles 258 and 260 TFEU (see details on the infringement procedure here).
The purpose of Directive 2019/1937 of the European Parliament and of the Council is to protect persons who report violations of Union law by establishing common minimum standards (whistleblower protection). These persons are in a crucial position, since they work for or come into contact with a public or private organisation, and because of their professional position they can identify threats or harm to the public interest (public interest whistleblowers). Under the provisions of the Directive, each Member State must take the necessary measures to ensure that such persons can freely access and report any breaches of Union law that they identify, thereby ensuring social welfare in the Union and enhancing transparency and accountability. Member States are obliged to ensure effective, confidential and secure reporting channels for whistleblowers, ensuring that public interest whistleblowers are effectively protected from retaliation. In the areas of public procurement, financial services, safety of products placed on the internal market and environmental protection, the role of public interest whistleblowers is crucial.
However, the European Commission has noticed that some countries – including Greece – have not fully transposed the above Directive into national law in order to effectively protect persons who report violations of EU law.For this reason, it initially sent a “Letter of formal notice” on 27 January 2022. However, the problem does not seem to have been resolved, so it will take further action in 2022. As mentioned in the “July infringements package: main decisions/15-7-2022“ , in July of the same year the Commission sent a “Reasoned opinion” calling on Greece to comply with the EU rules of Directive 2019/1937. [Infringement number: INFR(2022)0061].
The application of EU law is an obligation of the Member States of the European Union. If infringements of EU law are identified, the European Commission may take a series of actions against the Member State concerned to ensure the correct and full application of EU law by opening infringement proceedings under Articles 258 and 260 TFEU.
In this case, the European Commission sent a letter of formal notice and a reasoned opinion to Greece under Article 258 TFEU, calling on it to comply with the provisions of Directive 2019/1937. This is because Greece is one of the countries that have not fulfilled their obligation to transpose the rules of the Directive into national legislation in order to ensure whistleblower protection.
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