Brussels reprimanded for failure to provide a whistleblower statute

The European Commission sent a formal notice to the Brussels-Capital Region for failing to provide a whistleblower statute for civil servants. N-VA group chair Cieltje Van Achter regrets the lack of progress and wonders whether the government is deliberately delaying the introduction of the whistleblower statute. 

In 2019, in the aftermath of the Samusocial scandal, the Brussels-Capital Parliament approved an ordinance that made a whistleblower law possible. The European Commission required this whistleblower law to be in effect by December 2021. On Monday, a question from Cieltje Van Achter revealed that we have been waiting for the implementing decisions for three years already and that the ordinance is not yet ready.

Lack of seriousness

Cieltje Van Achter is disappointed by the lack of seriousness of the Brussels Vivaldi majority. “It was already clear in 2019 that an ordinance would not provide a solid legal basis for the whistleblower statute. That is why the N-VA abstained from the vote. It now appears from the opinions of the Council of State and the Data Protection Authority that our comments were well-founded. If the majority had taken our criticism seriously in the previous legislature, we would not be being reprimanded by Europe today.” 

Culpable negligence

Cieltje Van Achter stresses the importance of a whistleblower law for Brussels civil servants. “Pretty much every review shows that the government institutions in Brussels are still too often characterised by maladministration. A clear framework with a protection scheme for staff members who expose abuses is therefore absolutely necessary. I know from my own experience that there are plenty of potential whistleblowers in the Brussels administration who have been waiting for years already for a proper statute. Three years after promising to come up with a framework soon, this is in fact little other than culpable negligence. The question then arises as to whether the government is deliberately trying to keep the lid on a few secrets.”