The EU is to guarantee a high level protection to whistle-blowers across a wide range of sectors including public procurement, financial services, money laundering, product and transport safety, nuclear safety, public health, consumer and data protection.

Today the Council formally adopted new rules on whistle-blowers protection. The new rules will require the creation of safe channels for reporting both within an organisation - private or public - and to public authorities. It will also provide a high level of protection to whistle-blowers against retaliation, and require national authorities to adequately inform citizens and train public officials on how to deal with whistle-blowing.

The legislation will now be formally signed and published in the Official journal. Member states will have two years to transpose the new rules into their national law...

The main elements [...] include:

• Creation of channels of reporting within companies/administrations...
• Hierarchy of reporting channels...
• A large number of profiles protected by the new rules...
• A wide scope of application...
• Support and protection measures for whistleblowers...
• Feedback obligations for authorities and companies...