Act for Ethics – NNDKP’s Ethics Officer – a legal & tax hub dedicated to business ethics and compliance

Compliance aspects have an increasingly significant impact, in terms of magnitude and intensity, on the lives of companies, at global level. Beyond their desire to voluntarily mitigate legal, fiscal and operational risks, or the obligation to implement relevant legislative changes applicable to them, ensuring compliance has become a central concern for companies, requiring dedicated budgets, programs and resources.

Act for Ethics is a space for information and debate currently addressing corporate governance, employment law, data protection aspects to be considered for the purpose of ensuring compliance with the legal provisions concerning whistleblowers.

Check regularly for updates.

  • NNDKP’s ARTICLES AND EVENTS TAKEWAYS

  • NNDKP EVENTS

    The deadline for companies to comply with the new legal obligations regarding whistleblowing is fast approaching.

    NNDKP continues its initiatives aimed at promoting this topic and at increasing awareness of the risks companies might face in case they fail to comply with the applicable legislation, once Romania will finalize the transposition of the Whistleblowing Directive.

    George Trandafir, Roxana Abrasu and Madalina Bucur designed a new webinar on the subject, which was hosted by avocatnet.ro.

    Details of the topics covered by our colleagues during the webinar are available here.

    Three months before the entry into force of the law implementing the EU Whistleblowers’ Directive, companies are expected to be making the final preparations for implementing the new compliance requirements.

    George Trandafir, Senior Associate in our Corporate/M&A practice, was a speaker at the online debate “Whistleblower. The honesty feedback loop”. The event is organized by Juridice.ro and will take place on September 20, 2021.

    Details of the topics covered by George during the debate are available here.

    By December 17th 2021, Romania must complete the process of transposing into national law the Directive for the protection of persons who report breaches of Union law (the “Whistleblowers’ Directive). Similarly to other countries, Romania intends to expand the protective measures significantly beyond the requirements of the directive.

    In this context, NNDKP organized a webinar during which our lawyers discussed the rigors that companies/the private business sector/employers in general must comply with, as soon as the law transposing the Directive enters into force.

    Pre-webinar details on the agenda and the speakers are available here.

    The recording of the webinar is available here.

  • UPDATES

    • Update (20.12.2022)
      On 19 December 2022, the normative act for transposition into Romanian law of the Directive (EU) 2019/1937 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the protection of persons who report breaches of Union law (“Directive”) was published in the Official Gazette of Romania. The Law no. 361/2022 on the protection of whistleblowers (“Whistleblowers’ Law”) shall enter into force on 22 December 2022. The Whistleblowers’ Law obliges employers to receive reports and to set in motion the follow-up mechanism in case of breaches of law in fields such as public procurement; services, products and financial markets and prevention of money laundering and prevention of terrorist financing; product safety and compliance; transport safety; environmental protection; radiological protection and nuclear safety; food safety, animal health and welfare; public health; consumer protection; protection of privacy and personal data and the security of networks and IT systems. The Whistleblowers’ Law requires whistleblowers to provide evidence in support of reports, and any anonymous reports (i.e., that do not contain the whistleblower’s name, surname, contact details or signature) will only be resolved if they contain substantial evidence of violations of the law. Companies with 50 to 249 employees can cooperate to pool resources for reporting and follow-up. The Whistleblowers’ Law enters into force immediately, with the companies and public entities having to comply immediately; however, the legislator provided the option for companies with 50 to 249 employees to postpone the implementation of the internal reporting channel at the latest until 17 December 2023.
    • Update (17.10.2022)
      The Law on whistleblowers’ protection has been undergoing reexamination by the Romanian Parliament following request by the President of Romania. A revised version of the Law has already been approved by the Senate, whereas the casting of the final approval vote by the Chamber of Deputies was scheduled for 4 October 2022. On 29 September 2022, the European Commission issued a reasoned opinion (details here – Romanian language), as a further step in the infringement proceeding launched, inter alia, against Romania, for failure to completely transpose the whistleblowers’ directive, and the legislative process has stayed. It should be therefore expected that the Romanian authorities delay the final approval of the Law, to address the Commission’s concerns, possibly by the expiry of the 2-month deadline to respond to the Commission’s reasoned opinion.
    • Update (01.08.2022)
      On 28 July 2022, the President of Romania requested the Parliament the reexamination of the Law on whistleblowers’ protection, thus denying the enactment of the law in the form approved by the legislative forum. The grounds supporting such request are available here in Romanian. The Parliament’s second session of the year will commence on 1 September 2022; an extraordinary session can only be convened under special circumstances. We remind here that the law was approved on 29 June 2022 and was subject to a constitutional challenge rejected on 13 July 2022.
    • Update (13.07.2022)
      The Constitutional Court of Romania has rejected the constitutionality objection raised in connection with article 1 paras. (4), (6) și (7), article 19 and the entire Law for the protection of whistleblowers, according to the press release available here (in Romanian).
    • Update  (11.07.2022)
      The legislation on whistleblowers’ protection was challenged before the Constitutional Court of Romania and will not be enacted before a resolution is reached in September 2022.
    • Update on the procedure for the enactment of the legislation on whistleblowers’ protection (30.06.2022)
    • Update (13.04.2021)
      Romanian authorities have recently started the transposition process for Directive (EU) 2019/1937 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the protection of persons who report breaches of Union law (the “Whistleblowers’ Directive“). The transposition bill (for which the review process has closed) is projected to become law in December 2021. The bill is available here (in Romanian).

  • USEFUL LINKS

    • Romanian Law on the whistleblowers’ protection is available here (in Romanian).
    • Directive (EU) 2019/1937 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the protection of persons who report breaches of Union law (the “Whistleblowers’ Directive) is available here.

  • WHISTLEBLOWING TECH SUPPORT

    NNDKP may facilitate the access to the technical solution for reporting concerns developed by WhistleB, a leading whistleblowing software provider and business ethics & compliance expert.

    WhistleB is a Swedish company that was founded in 2011 – today the company is part of NAVEX Global Group, the worldwide leader in integrated risk and compliance management software and services. WhistleB’s whistleblowing system has been used in over 160 countries, including in Romania, by private companies, as well as public authorities.

    More information on WhistleB is available here.

    To require a demo via NNDKP, please contact Adriana I. Gaspar.

  • YOUR CONTACTS

    For any questions, your contacts at NNDKP are available either by e-mail or telephone.

    NNDKP Team

    For Whistleblowers’ Directive updates, your main contacts are Adriana I Gaspar, George Trandafir, Roxana Abrasu, and Madalina Vasile.

DISCLAIMER
Nothing in this section should be construed as legal and/or tax advice. This section is necessarily generalized. Professional advice should therefore be sought before any action is undertaken based on this section.