Duality in Whistleblower Protection: The European and Greek Legal Frameworks
Rea Drikou, from Greece’s Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences, was the recipient of an honorable mention of the inaugural Lewis Master Thesis Award. She discusses her thesis, “The whistleblowers’ protection in the light of EU and national jurisdiction”, and her findings in this blog post.
The institution of the "whistleblower," the person who "blows the whistle" and reveals an illegal act, can be found in societies in various forms since ancient times. Today, the protection of whistleblowers concerns us because, thanks to their courage in informing the authorities about illegal activities, they play a decisive role in the fight against money laundering, terrorist financing, corruption, and other serious crimes, which, despite existing legal frameworks to combat them, continue to affect the interests of citizens, Member States and the EU as a unit.
Based on these considerations, I chose to examine, within the framework of my thesis, “The whistleblowers’ protection in the light of EU and national jurisdiction”, the level of protection afforded to whistleblowers under both European and Greek jurisdictions. To this end, I investigated the development of whistleblowers’ protection, focusing on a comparative analysis of EU Directive 2019/1937, jurisprudential criteria established by the European Court of Human Rights, the pre-existing Article 47 of the Greek Code of Criminal Procedure, and Greek Law No. 4990/2022, which transposed the Directive into national law.
Through this comparative analysis, it is evident that the protection of whistleblowers within both the European and national legal frameworks is shaped in a multifaceted manner. At the level of EU law, Directive 2019/1937 addressed the gap created by the absence of a uniform regulatory approach, although, as it is based on a cross-sectoral legal basis, its material scope does not extend to all areas involving breaches of Union law. Simultaneously, the case law of the European Court of Human Rights has played a decisive role in shaping the Directive. Nevertheless, it has not fully determined its content. As a result, two diverse systems of protection have emerged at the European level.
A similar duality exists within the Greek legal system, where the status and protection of whistleblowers are regulated by both the newly introduced transposing Law No 4990/2022 and the pre-existing Article 47 of the Greek Code of Criminal Procedure. Specifically, the material scope of Law 4990/2022 covers reports of breaches of Union law, as regulated by the Directive, as well as breaches of national law but only insofar as they relate to bribery crimes in the public and private sector, and the corresponding legal liability of legal entities. At the same time, Article 47, which governs the exemption of whistleblowers from criminal prosecution, retains its original provisions on the legal status of whistleblowing, while its material scope covers exclusively reports of bribery crimes and related offenses in the public sector.
In any case, there is no doubt that the first significant steps toward a more systematic protection of whistleblowers in both the EU and Greek jurisdictions have already been taken. What is now expected is the establishment of a more uniform system of whistleblower protection, which could be achieved, inter alia, through the reinforcement of the Directive’s legal basis, as well as the development of a stronger national protective framework for whistleblowers without differentiating the level of protection based on the nature of the reported breach of law.
The views expressed in this blog post are solely those of the author and do not represent the European Whistleblowing Institute.
