An important step towards more compliance in companies was taken: Directive (EU) 2019/1937 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 October 2019 on the protection of persons who report breaches of Union law (the so-called Whistleblower Directive) was published in the EU Official Journal of 26 November 2019. The directive now introduces an EU-wide minimum standard for the protection of whistleblowers. Under the new rules, companies with more than 50 employees will be required to set up secure channels for reporting breaches. The scope of the Directive is limited to reporting violations of EU law. Member States may, however, go beyond the minimum standard when transposing the Directive so that the national legislator has the possibility to extend the scope to breaches of national law. How do you assess the situation in your country? Will the possibility of extending it to national law be used?
Depends highly. I reviewed my company´s whistleblowing practices a year ago against local legislation and was suprised .of how diverse is the protection given in local laws to whistleblowers. In some countries, there is a high resistence towards granting such protection. An example is Denmark which - up to when I did the search - had no designated law to protect whistleblowers from retaliation and provide them with disclosure channels to report crime and corruption. I doubt many countries would go above and beyond what the directive requires. But we shall wait and see.
That's good and up-to-date Directive for the EU. However, not many countries will go beyond the minimum, primarily the EU-15 member states will do. Agree with Maryam.