At the plenary session of the Chamber of Deputies on Tuesday, a draft law on the protection of whistleblowers in the public interest was adopted with amendments clarifying the status of integrity whistleblowers. It will be recalled that the law was returned to the parliament by President Klaus Iohannis.

With 191 votes “for”, 3 “against” and 60 “abstentions”, the deputies changed the bill on the status of whistleblowers compared to the initial version. Amendments made by senators were also corrected

• How Senators Changed Whistleblower Law: “Anonymous Report Must Include Contact Information”

The law applies to whistleblowers who have received information about a violation of the law in a professional context.

Thus, the innovations of the whistleblower integrity law are:

• a message that does not contain the name, surname, contact information or signature of the whistleblower in the public interest is considered and resolved if it contains significant signs of a violation of the law.
• if the court finds that repression has been applied against the same whistleblower in the public interest, at least twice, in connection with the same report or public disclosure, it may order, depending on the circumstances, any of the measures provided for in paragraph (5 ), as well as the application of a civil fine of up to 40,000 lei.
• The law also applies to persons whose employment relationship has not yet begun and who report through internal or external reporting channels or publicly disclose information about violations of the law obtained during the hiring process or other pre-contractual negotiations or in the event that their employment or service relationship has ended.
• this law also applies to persons who anonymously report or publish information about violations of the law.”

The draft law regulates the general framework for the protection of persons who report violations of the law that have taken place or may take place in authorities, state institutions, other legal entities under public law, as well as in legal entities under private law, with the aim of transposing into national legislation the Directive (EU ) 2019/1937 of the European Parliament and of the Council of October 23, 2019 on the protection of persons reporting violations of Union legislation.

The Chamber of Deputies is the decision-making body and the law is sent to President Klaus Iohannis for promulgation.

It will be recalled that President Klaus Iohannis returned the law to the parliament for reconsideration. In the appeal for re-examination, the president referred to the anonymous messages excluded from the law sent for publication and believed that “it is necessary to review the legislative decision on the analysis of anonymous messages for the purpose of whether they contain sufficient information.” regarding violations of the law and the correlation of norms”.