Spanish MEP, Miguel Urbán Crespo stresses the importance of whistleblowers in safeguarding the right to information: “They are essential to uncover a range of offenses, from tax fraud to mass espionage.”

“They take a lot of risks, and for this we must recognise them as defenders of human rights and as a vulnerable group in need of special protection.”

Urbán criticises the European Union because “it has done little to protect whistleblowers who revealed cases of fraud within the institutions”.

He addresses two questions to the Commission: “First, what will be done at the legislative and programmatic level on this matter?”

“Second, we would like to know the Commission's position on the opinion of the United Nations on arbitrary detention, such as in the case of Julian Assange who has been unjustly detained for years in the Embassy of Ecuador in London. What will you do to ensure that his case will be resolved satisfactorily?”

Greek MEP, Kostas Chrysogonos affirms: “The European Union must ensure the effective protection of people who provide information that helps to uncover corruption scandals. We must adopt a common European policy on this matter.”

“Consider how the public confidence was affected by the Luxleaks scandal or the Volkswagen scandal, and how much better the situation could be if we had harmonised legislation and whistleblowers were not afraid to report what they know”.

“Corruption happens in the dark. We will only be able to fight it effectively if we give incentives for people to come out into the light and denounce wrongdoing,” concludes Chrysogonos.

Irish MEP, Luke 'Ming' Flanagan, also stresses the urgent need for legal protection of whistleblowers: “We can talk all we want in Parliament, but I await the day when we actually do something about it, when it's those who have had the whistle blown on them that have something to fear, rather than those who blow that whistle”.

 

 

GUE/NGL Press Contact:

Nikki Sullings +32 483 03 55 75

Gay Kavanagh +32 473 84 23 20

European United Left / Nordic Green Left (GUE/NGL)

European Parliamentary Group

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