Shield EU: Protecting Whistleblowers, strengthening the rule of law
Transparency International Belgium (TI BE) is taking part in the ‘Shield EU’ project. This project aims to protect whistleblowers and strengthen the rule of law. Alongside TI Spain, TI Netherlands, TI Greece, TI France and the TI Secretariat, TI Belgium will work to raise awareness of Belgian legislation relating to whistleblowers, particularly with regard to their protection.
European Directive 2019/1937 on the protection of persons reporting breaches of Union law, also known as the ‘Whistleblower Directive’, has provided a basis for all countries to develop or strengthen their legislation. Belgium transposed this directive through about 10 different laws the first of which were published in 2022, with the provisions officially coming into force in February 2023.
Whistleblowers are individuals who report (internally within an organisation or externally to the authorities) or disclose (to the public) information concerning irregularities committed in a professional context. They play a vital role in preventing harm and detecting threats or breaches of the public interest which might otherwise remain hidden.
Therefor they must be protected against retaliation because of their reporting.
The project
Shield EU: Protecting Whistleblowers, strengthening the rule of law is a project funded by the EU under the EU Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values programme (CERV) and will run until July 2028.
Although Belgium has transposed the European directive and has a fairly robust legislative framework for the protection of whistleblowers, the situation can prove to be very complex. Indeed, the fragmented nature of whistleblower legislation makes it particularly difficult to know who to turn to and at what level of government… In this context, TI-BE will work on 2 different projects.
The first one aims at developing an easily accessible guidance for potential whistleblowers to help them clearly understand their rights and obligations under Belgium’s fragmented whistleblower protection framework
The second project is to create a repository of publicly available data on whistleblowing, designed to serve as a central reference point for stakeholders such as policy, authorities civil society, justice professionals, and researchers.
This project is funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
