Spanish Congress blocks "insufficient" whistleblowing protection law

On June 17, the Spain's Congress voted against an anti-corruption proposal which aimed to transpose the EU Whistleblower Directive into national law. That's good news: earlier this week we explained why this was a weak proposal that would not fulfil the Directive's requirements.

With 178 votes for NO and 159 YES, the majority in the Spanish Congress rejected the bill on the basis that the proposal was “opportunistic” and “insufficient”. Those who voted against included the governing political parties PSOE and Unidas Podemos, as well as Esquerra Republicana and PNV (Partido Nacionalista Vasco).

The parliamentary debate asserted how relevant whistleblower protection is to fight and prevent corruption, although the discussion also turned from the technical aspects proposed law into the political conflict that often take over in the Spanish Congress. After two hours' debate, the proposal, supported by the two conservative parties Partido Popular and VOX, was finally blocked.

PSOE, the stronger party in the coalition in Government, announced that the Ministry of Justice would constitute a Working Group, populated by representatives from different relevant sectors for transposition, to work out a formal proposal. The Commission designed with the task has until December 2020 to complete their work.

We hope this process will lead to a better, more considered proposal for introducing whistleblower protection in Spain. After a period of relative silence, Spain has now started down the road to national transposition of the EU Directive to protect whistleblowers.