On 16 March 2026, Transparency International published a report entitled: ‘How effective is whistleblower protection in the EU?’ – available here: How-effective-is-whistleblower-protection-in-the-EU_Report.pdf.
Nearly five years after the adoption of the European Whistleblower Directive, this report examines its transposition in various European countries, as well as the challenges that have arisen as a result. At Transparency International Belgium, we offer a brief summary of this report focusing on the challenges and specificities of whistleblowing in Belgium.
Glossary:
The terms are defined according to Transparency International report:
Whistleblowing: communicating information on suspected wrongdoing to individuals or entities believed to be able.
Whistleblower: Any person reporting or disclosing information on suspected wrongdoing acquired in the context of their work-related activities, with the reasonable belief that the information reported was true at the time of reporting.
Internal report: a whistleblowing report made within a public or private organisation (that is, within the workplace).
External report: a whistleblowing report made to a competent authority.
What is the EU Whistleblowing Directive?
The European Whistleblowing Directive (Directive UE 2019/1937 : Directive – 2019/1937 – EN – eu whistleblowing directive – EUR-Lex) was formally adopted on October 23, 2019.
It establishes minimum standards for the protection of informants, or “whistleblowers”, throughout the European Union. The initial aim is also to strengthen the application of EU law by introducing effective, confidential and secure reporting channels. In addition, the directive aims to protect whistleblowers more effectively against retaliation. Member States were required to transpose these standards into national law before 17 December 2021.
Belgium transposed the Directive through several laws in 2022, with the provisions officially entering into force in February 20231.
The Role of Whistleblowers: Whistleblowers are individuals who report (internally within an organization or externally to authorities) or disclose (to the public) information regarding wrongdoing in a professional context. They play a critical role in preventing damage and detecting threats or harm to the public interest that might otherwise remain hidden.
At the European level, the Directive aimed to harmonize whistleblower protection and establishes common standards.
Main Challenges:
Despite these strong legal foundations, the practical transposition of the Directive is sometimes incomplete. Transparency International has identified four main areas of concern regarding its implementation:
- Transposition shortcomings: in many cases, remedies and compensation for retaliation are limited, difficult to access or slow. The reversal of the burden of proof is often undermined in practice.
- Practical enforcement & institutional challenges: implementation is often hampered by fragmented authorities with insufficient resources. Furthermore, penalties vary considerably from one Member State to another and are often too lenient or rarely enforced. Finally, the number of officially recognised alerts is low.
- Advice and support: access to independent advice and support remains insufficient (legal aid, psychological assistance, resource constraints…)
- Data, transparency and inclusivity: whistleblower protection frameworks suffer from lack of systematic data collection and transparency. No member state systematically collects or analyses gender-disaggregated or other demographic data.
TI and the Belgian Section continue to support institutions on the path towards a clear implementation of the directive in its broadest sense, in order to ensure that all whistleblowers can speak out without fear of reprisals and benefit from the highest level of protection.
