2 Amendments of Amelia ANDERSDOTTER related to 2011/0455(COD)

Martin EHRENHAUSER, Bart STAES, Monica MACOVEI, Amelia ANDERSDOTTER

Proposal for a regulation
Article 1 – paragraph 1 – point 6 a (new)

Staff Regulations of Officials of the European Union
Article 22a

6a. Article 22a shall be replaced by the following: 1. Any official who, in the course of or in connection with the performance of his duties, becomes aware of or honestly believes in the existence of breaches of law, non-compliance of other officials with obligations of fundamental ethical principles, waste and/or risks detrimental to the interests of the European Union has the right to inform and to provide supporting information to either his immediate superior or his Director General, or the persons in equivalent positions, or the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) directly, if the matter concerns the competences of OLAF. Each institution must also provide a communication channel which allows an anonymous bidirectional communication of messages according to this article. 2. The institution assures that each official who communicates according to paragraph 1 (whistleblower) receives prompt confirmation of reception and within four weeks is informed about approximate duration needed for analyzing his message, which should not exceed six months. If this duration is exceeded, the whistleblower shall be informed about the reasons for this extended duration and the estimated total duration. The same applies for every consecutive period of three months. 3. If preliminary analysis gives reasons that the matter involves areas within the competences of OLAF, the case is transferred to OLAF. The whistleblower shall be informed promptly about that transfer. In relation to the whistleblower and the treatment of whistleblowing OLAF has the same obligations as a primary recipient and his institution. 4. Each institution assures that the identity of the whistleblower is treated as confidentially as possible. The institution and/or OLAF is also responsible for informing the whistleblower immediately of any breaches or risks to anonymity and confidentiality. 5. Each institution assures that each whistleblowing message is analyzed, analyses are impartial, adequate, prompt, properly documented, done by competent bodies and cannot be influenced by people accused or suspected by the whistleblower. The whistleblower has a right to be properly informed and heard before an analysis is finished. He is also informed about the final outcome and has the right to access the related documents. 6. The procedural, privacy and data protection rights of anybody involved as well as the secrecy needs of the institutions are respected throughout the treatment of the whistleblowing cases. 7. An official shall not suffer any prejudicial effects of his whistleblowing or its preparation on the part of the institution and shall be protected by the institution against any such effects that do or could arise from other officials or third parties. If the whistleblower suffers negative effects and a relation to his whistleblowing cannot be excluded, it is for the institution to prove that such a relation did not exist. 8. Undue interference into a whistleblowing process by an official (e.g. manipulation of an analysis or any detriment of a whistleblower) shall make him liable to a disciplinary action. Officials who misuse the whistleblowing process shall also be liable to a disciplinary action if it can be shown that the official had knowingly raised a false concern or knowingly provided false information. 9. The Institutions shall establish internal support to provide independent confidential counselling to potential whistleblowers. The whistleblowing policy shall be communicated in a transparent and constructive manner. Mechanisms shall be established to communicate successful measures in concrete cases such as detection of risks, avoidance of wrongdoing, sanctioning of wrongdoers, avoidance of retaliation and sanctioning of malicious whistleblowing to the staff in an anonymous way. 10. The Institutions shall monitor and regularly evaluate the application of these provisions and undertake proactive measures, provide risk awareness and whistleblowing training to support best usage of these provisions. A coordinated registration, tracking and tracing system for disclosures shall be established without prejudice to paragraph 6 of this article. 11. This article applies also in any case in which an official uses his rights under article 21a or where an official has a duty to report about issues mentioned in paragraph 1.

2012/03/06
Committee: CONT

Martin EHRENHAUSER, Bart STAES, Monica MACOVEI, Amelia ANDERSDOTTER

Proposal for a regulation
Article 1 – paragraph 1 – point 6b (new)

Staff Regulations of Officials of the European Union
Article 22b

6b. Article 22b shall be replaced by the following: 1. A whistleblower who honestly believes that his rights under Article 22a were not respected or who honestly believes in the existence of breaches of law by officials in grade AD 14 or above and/or by Members of his Institution or OLAF is entitled to inform and provide supporting information to the President of the Commission or of the Court of Auditors (if the areas of the competences of the Court of Auditors are concerned) or of the Council or of the European Parliament or to the European Ombudsman. 2. A whistleblower who honestly believes that his rights under article 22b paragraph 1 and 3 were not respected is entitled to inform and provide supporting information about suspected wrongdoing detrimental to the interest of the European Union or suspected criminal behaviour of the officials and/or Members of its institution to any member of the European Parliament and the Court of (if the areas of the competences of the Court of Auditors are concerned). 3. The rights and obligations of article 22a respectively apply to whistleblowers and recipients under article 22b. A recipient under article 22b has the right to question a previously involved recipient and/or institution about his treatment of the whistleblowing and shall be provided with the necessary information for his analysis. 4. If EU legislation entrusts other bodies - outside the EU institutions - with the necessary competences to confidentially assess matters (within EU-Institutions) that could be subject of disclosures by EU-officials, officials may also address them under the conditions mentioned in this article. 5. The recipients mentioned in paragraphs 1, 2 and 4 also have the right to inform the public if they deem that this is necessary. 6. If a whistleblower is undergoing disciplinary or other procedures for not respecting the recipient-limitations of art. 22a/b and/or e.g. by providing information to the media and public any measure taken against him must take into account if the information provided was true or the whistleblower believed it to be true. The public interests in the issue at stake must also be taken into account.

2012/03/06
Committee: CONT

2 Amendments of Amelia ANDERSDOTTER related to 2011/0455(COD)

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