European Union

EU Whistleblowing

EU Directive on Whistleblowing
16 Dec 2019 - Present

In 2019 the European Union adopted a far-reaching Directive on the protection of persons who report breaches of Union law.

The ‘EU Directive on Whistleblowing’ entered into force on the 16th of December 2019 and each of the 27 EU Member States have until the 17th of December 2021 to transpose its provisions into their national legal and institutional systems.

The EU Whistleblowing Meter was created by the Whistleblowing International Network to track the progress of transposition across all 27 Member States.

In partnership with

Promise History

Transposition of EU Directive on Whistleblowing

EU Directive on Whistleblowing

Latvia - Transposition of the EU Directive on Whistleblowing

EU Directive on Whistleblowing

Published: Dec 2019

In order to promote whistleblowing in the public interest and to transpose the European Union Directive on Whistleblowing, the Latvian State Chancellery has prepared amendments to the Whistleblowing Law and invited the public to make proposals for their improvement.

Latvia: State Chancellery invites the public to participate in the improvement of the Whistleblowing Law

Published: Jul 2020

The current Whistleblowing Law was adopted by the Parliament on October 2018 and came into effect on 1 May 2019, it was drafted while taking into consideration the current EU direction.

Adoption of The Whistleblowing Law

11 Oct, 2018. Press release on Parliament’s website about the adoption of the law: https://www.saeima.lv/en/news/saeima-news/27315-saeima-adopts-whistleblower-protection-law

On 11 October 2018 the Saeima adopted the Whistleblowing Law. The new law will enable whistleblowers to expose offences which concern public interests or interests of certain social groups. It will also help create and launch a whistleblowing framework, as well as provide appropriate protection to those who have disclosed a wrongdoing. The Cabinet of Ministers is also tasked with producing and passing to the Saeima amendments to the Civil Procedure Law by 1 December 2019 to ensure efficient application of temporary protective orders in civil cases involving whistleblowers.

Latvia takes an important step towards the strengthening of whistleblower protection

11 Oct, 2018. An article on Government’s web site: https://www.mk.gov.lv/en/aktualitates/latvia-takes-important-step-towards-strengthening-whistleblower-protection

The Law defines a whistleblower, how to spread alarm and stipulates the basic requirements for processing the whistleblower’s report. In Latvia, the work on the whistleblowing mechanism started in 2014. Representatives from the government, the Saeima and the society all participated in the drafting of the law approved by the Saeima.

Whistleblowing NGO Maison des Lanceurs d'Alerte - the ‘house of the whistleblower’ - have called for a timely and progressive implementation of the EU Directive on Whistleblowing. An op-ed published in the French national newspaper Libération discusses the need for reform of the current legal framework (the Sapin II law) and sets out key policy recommendations where new legislation should go beyond the minimum standards required by the Directive and effectively protect whistleblowers in practice. Recommendations include an expansion of the scope of the Directive, which protects persons reporting breaches of EU Law, to include anyone disclosing information on wrongdoing in the public interest; a strengthening of the Defender of Rights ombuds institution; and, the creation of a financial support fund for whistleblowers.