Whistleblower law across Europe

All the European Union member states are required to implement the EU law on whistleblower protection at the national level by means of an appropriate legal act.

Whistleblower law implementation is issued by the 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.

Although many countries already had their national whistleblowing acts in force before 2019, they must adjust them to the Directive scope anyway to reach the EU standards.

According to Article 26 of the Directive, the deadline for the entry into force of national laws, regulations, and administrative provisions necessary to comply with the Directive expired on December 17, 2021, for companies with more than 250 employees. Only for private sector enterprises with 50 to 249 employees, this deadline has been extended to December 17, 2023.

The status of whistleblower legislation in individual EU countries is presented below. Only eight member states adopted the legislation before the deadline requested by the EU.

Country	Name of the whistleblowing law	In force since
Austria	HinweisgeberInnenschutzgesetz (HSchG)	25 February 2023
Belgium	Loi sur la protection des personnes qui signalent des violations au droit de l'Union ou au droit national	15 February 2023
Bulgaria	закон за защита на лицата, подаващи сигнали или публично оповестяващи информация за нарушения	2 May 2023
Croatia	O Proglašenju Zakona O Zašiti Prijavitelja Nepravilnosti	23 April 2022
Cyprus	O περι τησ προστασιασ προσωπων που αναφερουν παραβιασεισ του ενωσιακου και εθνικου δικαιου	4 February 2022
Czech Republic	Návrh zákona o ochraně oznamovatelů	1 August 2023
Denmark	Lov om beskyttelse af whistleblowere	17 December 2021
Estonia	Tööalasest Euroopa Liidu õiguse rikkumisest teavitaja kaitse seadus (TÕRTKS)	1 September 2024
Finland	Laki Euroopan unionin ja kansallisen oikeuden rikkomisesta ilmoittavien henkilöiden suojelusta	1 January 2023
France	LOI no 2022-401 visant à améliorer la protection des lanceurs d'alerte	1 September 2022
Germany	Hinweisgeberschutzgesetz (HinSchG)	2 July 2023
Greece	Law 4990/2022	15 November 2022
Hungary	A panaszokról, a közérdekű bejelentésekről, valamint a visszaélések bejelentésével összefüggő szabályokról (Proposal Nr. 3089)	26 May 2023
Ireland	Protected Disclosures (Amendment) Bill 2022	1 January 2023
Italy	Decreto Legislativo 10 March 2023, n. 24	15 July 2023
Latvia	Trauksmes celšanas likums	4 February 2022
Lithuania	Pranešėjų Apsaugos Įstatymas	15 February 2022
Luxembourg	Loi du 16 mai 2023	16 May 2023
Malta	Protection of the Whistleblower (Amendment) Act, 2021	15 November 2021
Netherlands	Wijziging van de Wet Huis voor klokkenluiders	18 February 2023
Poland	Ustawa o ochronie sygnalistów	25 September 2024
Portugal	Lei n.º 93/2021	18 June 2022
Romania	LEGE nr.361 privind protectia avertizorilor în interes public	16 December 2022
Slovakia	Návrh zákona (1299), ktorým sa mení a dopĺňa zákon č. 54/2019	1 April 2023
Slovenia	Zakon O Zaščiti Prijaviteljev (ZZPri)	22 February 2023
Spain	Ley 2/2023 reguladora de la protección de las personas que informen sobre infracciones normativas	13 March 2023
Sweden	Lag (2021:890) om skydd för personer som rapporterar om missförhållanden	17 December 2021