Whistleblower, «chi è costui?» Riflessioni sul perimetro della tutela alla luce della direttiva (UE) n. 2019/1937 e delle fonti cui essa si ispira

On 23 October 2019 the European Parliament and the Council adopted the Directive No. 2019/1937/EU on the protection of persons reporting breaches of Union law. This act aims at introducing common minimum standards within Member States in order to ensure a high level of protection for whistleblowers, i.e. individuals who report information about threats or harm to the public interest obtained in the context of their work-related activities. According to the European legislator, whistleblowing represents a suitable instrument for enhancing the application of Union law, transparency and accountability, all the more worthy of a high level of protection as it is considered to be the expression of a fundamental right. In order to achieve such objectives, a clear and broad definition of the scope of whistleblowers’ protection is essential: being recognized as a whistleblower is, in fact, a prerequisite for having access to any form of protection. Thus, the paper intends to analyse the Directive from the aforementioned perspective, focusing on issues critical for its implementation. The act’s scope of application as well as the conditions to be met so as to ensure the signalling person may enjoy whistleblower status under EU law are also assessed in light of the principles enshrined both in the ECHR case-law and Recommendation 2014(7) of the Council of Eu-rope, which the Directive expressly draws upon.