The idea of a United Europe was born on the fact that wars should stop forever on our continent, that all the children, unborn children and citizens would in the future be able to live a life within a union of countries which would promote peace within its borders. One can remember talks about the ‘United States of Europe’, where the countries of the ‘old continent’ would stand together, develop a strong market between the USA and China and thus defends its interests and the ones of its citizens .

Human right provides the right to freedom of expression.

European Convention on the Protection of Human Rights

The European Convention on the Protection of Human Rights

The article 10 of the European Convention on the protection of human rights is perfectly clear as far as freedom of expression is concerned:

1. Everyone has the right to freedom of expression. This right shall include freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart information and ideas without interference by public authority and regardless of frontiers. This article shall not prevent States from requiring the licensing of broadcasting, television or cinema enterprises.

2. The exercise of these freedoms, since it carries with it duties and responsibilities, may be subject to such formalities, conditions, restrictions or penalties as are prescribed by law and are necessary in a democratic society, in the interests of national security, territorial integrity or public safety, for the prevention of disorder or crime, for the protection of health or morals, for the protection of the reputation or rights of others, for preventing the disclosure of information received in confidence, or for maintaining the authority and impartiality of the judiciary.

The freedom to “communicate information or ideas without any meddling from a public authority and without any consideration of border” is guaranteed but “the exercise of these freedoms […] can be subject to certain […] sanctions provided by the law […].”

European Definition of a Whistleblower

According to the European Parliament of the Council of Europe, a global specific law “for legal security” is preferable to have an efficient alert legislation. The area of application must at least include the violations of the law, the human rights and the risks relating to health, security and environment. The channels and the procedures must be secured and open. An independent agency must collect, treat, follow the alert and regularly evaluate and publish the data. The resolution 1729 §1 (from 2010) defines whistleblowers as “Individuals who sound an alarm in order to stop wrongdoings that place fellow human beings at risk”.

The April 24^th, 2014 European Directive from the Committee of the Ministers of the Council of Europe recommends in its paragraph 21 that “a commitment by the European Union to assess the state of whistleblower protection in the European member States with a view to doing further work in this area”. Onenamely readsin its paragraph 21 that “Protection against retaliation” of any form is a must: “Whistleblowers should be protected against retaliation of any form, whether directly or indirectly, by their employer and by persons working for or acting on behalf of the employer. Forms of such retaliation might include dismissal, suspension, demotion, loss of promotion opportunities, punitive transfers and reductions in or deductions of wages, harassment or other punitive or discriminatory treatment”.

In May 2017, Jean-Claude Juncker, the President of the European Commission stated that a protection law for whistleblowers would soon be discussed. We were hoping by that time that several whistleblowers would be auditioned as we had raised the issue several times on social networks and had sent press releases in the previous months. Indeed, a report was adopted in October 2017. Unfortunately whether in Brussels or in our respective countries and despite the speeches by a certain number of elected representatives, not a single whistleblower has been protected so far. The European Directive voted in 2019 is however to be implemented within the 27 countries of the European Union before the end of 2021.

The European Directive about ‘Business Secrecy’

We all acknowledged that information is even more protected than the citizens when the ‘Business Secrecy’ European Directive was quite rapidly voted in Brussels during spring 2016. This Directive was made possible thanks to the intense lobbying of multinational companies. The purpose of this Directive is to protect companies from economic and industrial espionage. Everyone understands the fact that the protection from competitors is essential, but this Directive would obviously sanction the whistleblowers and the journalists whose job is to inform. What would happen in case of stolen documents, for example? Questions are being asked as far as room to manœuvre for each European State in the re-transcription of the Directive; certain practices being neither illegal nor inappropriate but simply are qualified as morally and politically “questionable”.

After the announcement of the promulgation of the ‘Business Secrecy’ Directive, a BBC journalist asked the French (LR) Euro Deputy Constance Le Grip: “Can you promise that nobody will be sentenced because of this Directive?” The answer of the Rapporteur of the Directive was that she is “not a judge”. Incertitude is here at stake.

Was the timing really appropriate for our Euro Deputies to pass this Directive? On April 14^th, 2016 the European Parliament adopted it with a crushing majority (77%) and just several days after the Pan