Trade unions and civil society have worked together with the European Parliament, demanding that the European Commission should act. After long and persistent lobbying and campaigning we finally got the European Commission to propose a directive on whistleblower protection in April 2018. While it marked a good starting point for discussions, improvements were clearly necessary.

We urge the European Parliament, the Council of the European Union, and the European Commission to protect whistleblowers in the EU by agreeing to a directive which includes:

• the right to seek advice from a trade union and NGOs,
• the right to be represented by a trade union
• the right to contact law enforcement directly
• safe disclosure to journalists
• safeguards for existing national whistleblower laws; and
• a broad whistleblower definition, with no extra test on how the reported information was acquired.