Reflections from the European Whistleblowing Conference
Dr Vigjilenca Abazi is the Executive Director and Co-Founder of the European Whistleblowing Institute.
In early April 2025, the European Whistleblowing Institute hosted the “European Whistleblowing Conference: Collaborative Pathways to Integrity”, co-organised with leading organisations in the field. Although some months have passed, the impact of this significant event, the first of its kind at this scale in Europe, continues to resonate with me.
What made the conference exceptional was, quite simply, being in the room. For the first time, a transnational community of individuals and organisations, some with over four decades of experience, others just beginning their journey, came together not as separate sectors, but as a shared ecosystem. Whether Member of Parliament, academic, whistleblower, or representative of a national authority, each participant brought a clear and earnest commitment to deepen collective understanding and strengthen the future of whistleblowing in Europe.
4 April 2025, Residence Palace, Brussels: “European Whistleblowing Conference: Collaborative Pathways to Integrity”
Long in the Making
I had the distinct honour of opening the conference and as I looked around the room, just before delivering my remarks, I was struck by the scale of transformation that had taken place. Nearly a decade earlier, at the European Parliament, just steps away from our conference venue, I was part of a small coalition of advocates and experts assembled under the banner “Right to Speak Out? Draft Directive for the Minimum Protection of Whistleblowers in Europe”. Our aim was to advance a legal framework that, at the time, seemed politically out of reach. Among those leading the initiative was Benedek Jávor, then a Member of the European Parliament and now a speaker at the 2025 conference on the practical challenges facing whistleblowers. In 2016, legislative momentum was weak. Legal arguments concerning the limits of EU competence were routinely deployed to obscure a deeper political reluctance among Member States to engage with the issue. In several national contexts, even the term “whistleblowing” had no direct linguistic counterpart underscoring just how marginal the subject remained in both law and public discourse.
4 May 2016, European Parliament, Brussels: “Right to Speak Out? Draft Directive for the minimum protection of whistleblowers in Europe”
The eventual adoption of the EU Whistleblower Protection Directive in 2019 marked a significant institutional shift but one that was only possible through sustained coordination, advocacy, and strategic action. Individuals such as Anna Myers (Whistleblowing International Network), Marie Terracol (Transparency International), and Tom Devine (Government Accountability Project), to name but a few of the conference speakers, played a critical role in shaping the legal and political consensus that made the Directive a reality. Yet, formal legal empowerment does not automatically translate into effective practice. As the experience of implementation reveals, minimum standards without institutional uptake risk entrenching fragmentation rather than overcoming it.
Whistleblowing Is a Democratic Act
Too often, the legal framework treats whistleblowing as a risk management issue or confines it to the employer-employee relationship. But whistleblowing, at its core, is an act of democratic courage, an effort to protect the public interest by disclosing information essential to accountability. This epistemic function of whistleblowing, its capacity to surface information that challenges dominant narratives or exposes systemic failure, is precisely what renders it politically potent and socially disruptive. And yet, it is also what existing legal frameworks struggle to accommodate. If we take that seriously, then we must move beyond minimum standards. We need to ask: what kind of legal, institutional, and cultural infrastructure do we need to truly hear the whistle?
The Work Ahead: Three Challenges
At this critical moment, I see three key areas where we must focus our efforts to build a whistleblowing framework that works in practice:
Enforcement That Matters
One thing is clear from other areas of EU law: without sanctions and enforcement, legal norms remain symbolic. Too many current systems lack the bite needed to ensure compliance or prevent retaliation. If we want real change, we need to move towards a system that creates consequences.
Building the Legal Profession
In training sessions I have led for judges, prosecutors, and lawyers across Europe, we are only at the very beginning of understanding the legal and procedural implications of EU whistleblowing law. There is a real risk that, instead of simplifying protection, we are creating new layers of complexity and procedural hurdles. We need to invest in training and build a legal profession that understands and adequately applies EU whistleblowing law.
Centring the Wellbeing of the Whistleblower
Legal protection, however necessary, is not sufficient. Whistleblowers often face isolation, retaliation, and reputational harm. The ecosystem around whistleblowing must be reimagined to prioritise not only legal compliance but also the psychosocial wellbeing of those who speak out.
Towards Ethics of Enlightenment
At the conference, former CJEU Judge Ninon Colneric, in her excellent keynote, challenged us to think in terms of an “ethics of enlightenment”, a phrase that captures both the moral and epistemic stakes of whistleblowing in democratic societies. It is a reminder that whistleblowing, in the face of unaccountable power, is foundational to the renewal of democratic life.
At the European Whistleblowing Institute, we take this challenge seriously. Our ongoing work seeks to strengthen inter-institutional and inter-sectoral dialogue, to build bridges across borders, and to support the development of legal, cultural, and institutional environments where whistleblowing is valued. In this respect, the first European Whistleblowing Conference revealed both how far we have come and how much remains to be done.
