NGOs and Labor Unions accuse Romania of weakening whistleblower protections

Romania's government violated whistleblower rights embedded in existing legislation in the way it adopted the EU Whistleblower Protection Directive say a group of more than 20 NGOs and labor unions.

Many EU member states have had considerable delays in transposing, or implementing, the Directive in their national law. Not all those laws appear to do all they should do, as we pointed out very recently in relation to the draft law currently under consideration in Spain.

Romania already had one of Europe’s stronger laws in place before the passage of the Directive, albeit one that applied onto to the public sector, the 2004 Law on the Protection of Public Officials Complaining about Violations of the Law. Among the strengths of this law was allowing whistleblowers to decide for themselves how best to make their report, rather than tying them to dedicated routes provided by employers.

By January 2022, Romania was coming under pressure from the European Union to pass a law transposing the Directive or face potential enforcement action. In February, Romania’s legislative processes began in earnest and a law finally came into force on 22 December.

Notwithstanding some late changes due to pressure from civil society, the European Commission and the European Public Prosecutors Office, there are real problems with Romania’s implementation, which only barely meets the basic requirements of the Directive. In particular, Romania’s law appears to discourage anonymous whistleblowing reports, mandating the provision of contact information (which could be pseudonymous) if reports are to be followed up.

The law also moves Romania back towards a hierarchy of channels that makes it more difficult for whistleblowers to take their concerns to external bodies or the media without using their employer’s own route first. This reverses one of the most notable strengths of the existing 2004 law.

Radu Nicolae, President of NGO the Association for Cooperation and Sustainable Development, said this could make whistleblowers think twice before reporting wrongdoing and that it goes against the non-regression clause designed to prevent EU member states from weakening previous laws.