That remains to be seen. The European Whistleblower Protection Directive states that all Member States have to implement the Directive into their national law by December 17 2021. Most organisations will have to comply with the new law at this date.

The Dutch government sent its bill to the House of Representatives on June 1^st 2021. The current “Law House for Whistleblowers” will then be changed into the new “Law on the Protection of Whistleblowers”. At first the various political parties of the House of Representatives would submit their feedback on the bill on the 15^th of September. This has been changed to the 1^st of October. One day earlier the parliamentary committee on the Ministry of the Interior had a roundtable discussion about the new EU directive. More on that in our next newsletter.

In August Minister Ollongren of the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations sent a letter (Dutch language) the importance of supporting whistleblowers. This has been a major topic at the roundtable discussion. Still, the Dutch government is looking for a minimal implementation of the EU Directive, even though the Directive also provides good suggestions on how to support whistleblowers better.

The date for the discussion on the new law by the parliamentary committee has not been set yet. After this discussion a plenary debate will follow, after which the law is sent to the Senate for discussion. In the end the new law will be announced officially.

Implementation of the law before December 17 is going to be very difficult, if not impossible. When the law is finalized, most organisations will still have to change their whistleblower reporting procedure. If the organisation has a works council, they will have to provide their consent with the new procedure. All this usually takes more than a few days. However, you can still prepare yourselves now for the upcoming changes. Contact us via info@theintegritycoordinator if you want to know more.