We are writing to express our strong opposition to recent proposals to weaken whistleblower protection policies and practices in Slovakia. The proposals represented a major step backward in the country’s efforts to fight corruption and engage citizens in these efforts. They go against the letter and spirit of the EU Directive on whistleblower protection, with which Slovakia is legally bound to comply.

Slovakia has demonstrated admirable progress on this issue for many years, including passing a very fine whistleblower protection law in 2019, strengthening the law in 2023, establishing a whistleblower protection office, and placing a highly skilled person to oversee the office. The whistleblower office has worked very hard to investigate cases, shield many citizen corruption-fighters from retaliation, and educate the public about the issue.

Slovakia now has one of the most successful whistleblower systems in all of Europe. We are distressed and puzzled by efforts to reverse this noteworthy progress.

In particular, we object to the proposal to eliminate whistleblower protection for police officers. Because the Directive bans a reduction in the level of protection, this proposal would violate the Directive by canceling preexisting rights prior to the transposition.

Moreover, we are very alarmed by a proposal to require people to show it was “necessary” to report misconduct. Under this proposal, if a person is unable to show this, he or she will not be protected from being fired, sued or even prosecuted. This is highly illogical and punitive, and clearly will deter people from coming forward to report crime and corruption.

This bizarre test goes against basic social norms. When a person calls the police or fire department to report a problem, they are not asked whether it was necessary to call. People call the police and fire department to be helpful, and they are thanked for doing so. Imagine: if a person would be punished if they could not prove it was necessary to call, hardly anyone would call the police or fire department. Imagine: people being punished for trying to help. Just for the sake of argument, how could a person prove it was necessary to report a problem? There is no foreseeable way to do this. Therefore, this subjective standard readily could be used to target well-meaning citizens.

Such a “necessity” test already led to a 63-year old municipal worker in Denmark being convicted of a crime and sentenced to jail. (see: https://whistleblowersblog.org/global-whistleblowers/rookie-mistake-danish-supreme-court-fumbles-first-ever-whistleblower-case/)

Another proposal would remove protection for people who engage in “apparent abuse” of reporting. This is a completely subjective standard that opens the door to arbitrary punishment of whistleblowers. It reflects triple violations of the Directive’s requirements for clarity, minimum levels of protection and non-regression. The Directive only requires a person to have a reasonable belief their report is true. The Directive does not permit a person to undergo a motivation test. An “apparent abuse” could leave defenseless those who make honest mistakes.

We trust you will do the right thing and not weaken protections for people who report misconduct. Anything less would be highly counterproductive. We thank you for your attention.

Respectfully,

The Southeast Europe Coalition on Whistleblower Protection

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