The Federal Association of Germany Employers have published a position paper on the implementation of the EU Directive on Whistleblower despite clear recommendations to expand the scope of the Directive from EU Institutions, legal experts and civil society. The paper also calls for whistleblowing disclosure to be reported first to internal reporting channels despite the Directive requiring protection of direct external reporting to competent authorities.

The Social Democrats (SPD), as one of two ruling parties in the German Federal Government, published a position paper “Whistleblower besser schützen” (“better protection for whistleblowers”). To a great extent, their positions are in line with the demands of German NGO Whistleblower-Netzwerk e.V. The SPD parliamentary group demands an extension of the scope to the disclosure of wrongdoing and not only of breaches of the law. Main criticism is the lack of demanding the protection for whistleblowers working in national security.

Apparently, German Minister of Justice Christine Lambrecht (SPD) sent a first draft law to the other Federal Ministries, which is exclusively available to one German newspaper. According to their article, the Ministry wants to expand the scope of the Directive at least to a certain degree. Yet, there are still some serious shortcomings – e.g., there´s no obligation to carry out investigations following anonymous reports and matters of classified information are not covered.

That first draft law is probably this version: Referentenentwurf des Bundesministeriums der Justiz und für Verbraucherschutz. Important parts are still missing, as other Ministries have not delivered their parts yet.

In a press interview, German Minister of Justice Christine Lambrecht (SPD) announced that her ministry supports an extensive draft law on the protection of whistleblowers in Germany. She wants to expand the scope of the EU Whistleblowing Directive, so that it´ll also cover violations of German law. This would implement a demand that German NGOs such as Whistleblower-Network e.V. have long called for. Other ministries involved in the implementation still strive for a 1:1 transposition of the Directive.

Whistleblower Netzwerk e.v. October 23, 2020

A position paper has been jointly published by NGOs Reporters Without Borders and Whistleblowerz-Netzwerk e.v. to mark the anniversary of the EU Directive on whistleblowing entering into force on the 19 October 2019. The paper highlights the lack of progress of transposition in Germany to date. It calls for freedom of expression and freedom of the press to be a priority in the implementation of the Directive, making key recommendations concerning the scope of the new protections, which continues to be a matter of heated discussion between German policymakers.

An expert opinion commissioned by the German Trade Union Confederation, DGB, has been published recommending the Directive on Whistleblowing be implemented to create a comprehensive and coherent legal framework in Germany. The report, and its 53 Recommendations, can be read here.

A coalition of civil society organisations have published an open letter calling on the Federal Government to fully transpose the EU Directive on Whistleblowing into national law and warning of the risks of a 1:1 or verbatim transposition.

Germany’s Whistleblower Netzwerk e.v. details the governing coalitions infighting between the SPD’s Ministry of Justice and CDU’s Ministry of Economics. The Ministry of Economics is attempting to block the efforts of the Ministry of Justice to create an expansive whistleblower protection law during the transposition of the EU Directive on Whistleblowing.