The deadline for implementation of Bulgarian legislation with Directive 2019/1937 is 17 December 2021.
Bulgaria is one of the countries that will not implement the legislation before the deadline.
We believe that the process of transporting the Directive by the Ministry of Justice has been delayed too long, waiting the last moment. Both Bulgaria and the other EU member states had the opportunity to transpose the Directive into their national legislation in a period of 2 years.
TI-Bulgaria works actively on drafting a law for the protection of whistleblowers which law was presented to the working group at the Ministry of Justice.
The draft law gives opportunities for compensations of damages suffered by employees of an administration or organization because of the whistleblowing signal. The draft law gives one very important right- the right to freedom of expression for whistleblowers.
It is important to note that the purpose of the legislation is to use the potential to protect whistleblowers and to implement standards of protection against any repression.
The implementation of legislation for whistleblowers helps to ensure equal conditions so that companies and administrations will operate in an environment of fair competition and helps for the prevention, detection and correction of errors and irregularities.
Transparency International – Bulgaria expresses its serious concern that Bulgaria could not implement the directive and create legislation for the protection of whistleblowers.
The lack of legislation deprives citizens of information and raises doubts from citizens on how government will apply effective, coherent, and consistent rules for the protection of whistleblowers.