Zilinka Submits Letter with Objections to UOO Transformation to House Chair (2)

Bratislava, 26 November (TASR) - Prosecutor-General (PG) Maros Zilinka has submitted a letter to House Chair Richard Rasi (Voice-SD) in which he states his reservations to the draft regarding the transformation of the Whistleblower Protection Office (UOO) into any other office. Meanwhile, Zilinka has posted on a social network that the legal conditions for a short-track legislative procedure haven't been met. At the same time, he stated that the proposer, the Interior Ministry, chose a non-standard way of creating a new office - by narrowing the protection of whistleblowers without regard to EU law and by not respecting the principles of the rule of law. "First of all, I reiterated in the letter that the legal conditions for a fast-track legislative procedure on the bill haven't been met," stressed Zilinka. The PG stated that the proposer of the law chose a non-standard way of creating a new office. According to him, expanding its powers or reacting to the results of application in practice shouldn't be used as the reason for scrapping an existing state body in a country respecting the rule of law. He also pointed out that whistleblower protection is being narrowed without regard to EU law. In addition, the principles of the rule of law aren't being respected. "Especially the principle of legal certainty, which also includes the ban on retroactivity of laws," stated Zilinka. European Commission spokesperson Markus Lammert stated that several elements of the draft law on transforming the Office for the Protection of Whistleblowers raise serious concerns regarding European Union law. "This relates in particular to the planned abolition of the existing Office for the Protection of Whistleblowers and the resulting early termination of the mandate of the head of the office. We have alerted the Slovak authorities to our concerns and believe that detailed discussion will be needed thereafter. The Commission remains available to the Slovak authorities to discuss these matters," he said. The government last Saturday (22 November) approved a draft bill on setting up the new Crime Victim and Whistleblower Protection Office that should take over the agenda of compensating victims of crime from the Justice Ministry and replace the current Whistleblower Protection Office. The Interior Ministry pointed to the need to respond to problems when applying the current law, in particular the insufficient rights of an employer of a protected whistleblower. It added that the bill would also make the institutional protection of victims of crime and whistleblowers, which is currently divided among several state bodies, more effective. NOTE: This story has been extended to include the 5th paragraph ko/mf