Bulgarian Parliament Passes The Whistleblowing Act

• Jurisdiction: European Union
• Law Firm: Kinstellar
• Subject Matter: Employment and HR, Privacy, Data Protection, Whistleblowing
• Author: Mr Radoslav Chemshirov
• Published date: 08 March 2023

March 2023- The Bulgarian Parliament has passed an Act on protection of persons who report breaches or publicly disclose information on violations (the "Whistleblowing Act", the"Act"),implementing Directive (EU) 2019/1937 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 October 2019 on the protection of persons who report breaches of Union law.

The Whistleblowing Act will become effective as of 4 May 2023 and aims to protect persons reporting breaches of Bulgarian law and / or EU law. It has a wider scope than the EU Whistleblowing Directive: the Whistleblowing Act extends protection under national law to include reporting on breaches in the areas of labour law and general criminal law.

What this means for you?

If your company is:

• A private sector employer with 50 or more employees; or
• A private sector employer, irrespective of the number of employees, with activity within the financial and insurance sectors or persons liable under the Anti-Money Laundering Act, etc. (with business falling under certain European Union acts listed exhaustively in the Act).

You must:

• Establish an internal whistleblowing channel that meets the requirements set out in the Act;
• Adopt rules for internal whistleblowing and update them periodically (at least every three years);
• Designate one or more officers in charge of receiving and responding to whistleblowing signals (this may be also the data protection officer, if present);
• Provide clear and easily accessible information on the procedure for submitting whistleblowing signals;
• Establish and maintain a register of whistleblowing signals and accept an internal regulation for its maintenance in accordance with the guidelines of the Bulgarian Commission on Personal Data Protection on external whistleblowing;
• Regularly submit the necessary statistical information to Bulgarian Commission on Personal Data Protection in accordance with the established procedure.

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