Greece
Art. 2 (2) - Extension of material scope beyond EU law
No, the new Greek law in Art. 4 just repeats the material scope as it is mentioned in Art. 2 of the 2019/1937 Directive.
Art. 4 (1) - Extension of personal scope (protected person)
Yes, the personal scopes has been extended in order to include the self-employed, the consultants and also the work-from-home employees. The new greek law also applies to reporting persons when they report or publicly disclose information on breaches acquired in a work-based relationship which has since ended also due to retirement
Art. 6 (2) - Acceptance of anonymous reports
There is no other provision explicit about anonymous reports other than the one that is mentioned in par. 3 of Art. 6 of the Directive.
Art. 7 (2) - Encouraging internal reporting
There is a relative provision in the greek law in Art. 8 par. 6. but on the contrary, in order to encourage the direct external reporting procedure (to the National Transparency Authority in particular) when the reporting person reasonably believes that the report would not be delt effectively through internal reporting channels or that there is a risk of retaliation.
Art. 8 (7) - Obligation for legal entities in the private sector with less than 50 workers
According to Art. 9 par. 4 legal entities operating in thοse sectors are required to establish internal reporting channels as mentioned in the Directive. The difference is that they need to meet this obligation regardless of the number of people they employ.
Art. 8 (9) second subparagraph - Exemption for municipalities with fewer than 10.000 inhabitants / fewer than 50 workers / other entities with fewer than 50 workers
According to Art. 8 par. 2 of the greek law, in the munipalities with fewer than 10.000 inhabitans or fewer than 50 workers the duty of monitoring internal reportings is to be carried out by the “Advisor of Integrity” (Art. 23 of the national 4795/2021 law) or by the correponding employee of the supervising Ministry, in charge with managing internal reportings there.
Art. 8 (9) Third subparagraph - Shared internal reporting channels for municipalities
They are not allowed.
Art. 11 (1) - Authorities competent to receive external reports
Εθνική Αρχή Διαφάνειας (ΕΑΔ) – National Transparency Authority (NTA), https://aead.gr/en/.
Art. 11 (3) first sentence - Competence of authorities to decide on the minority of external reports
Yes. (Art. 12 par. 2c(ca))
Art. 11 (4) first sentence - Competence of authorities to decide on closing procedures regarding repetitive external reports
Yes. (Art. 12 par. 2c(cb))
Art. 11 (5) - Competence of authorities to handle particular external reports with priority
Yes. (Art.12 par. 2b)
Art. 20 (2) - Financial assistance and support measures for reporting persons
According to Art. 19, the reporting persons are entitled to free legal advice regarding the procedures and means of protection against retaliations before any authority as well as free legal assistance regardless of whether they meet the requirements for that according to greek law. In addition, the reporting persons are entitled to psychological support.
Art. 21 (1) first sentence - Protection measures against retaliation
The reporting persons are entitled to full compensation for the damages they have suffered (Art. 20 par.1). They can also request the restoration of things to the state they were in before the imposition of retaliations, as long as this is objectively possible and does not become disproportionately burdensome for the one obligated to do so (Art. 20 par.2). In addition, it is explicit mentioned that the termination of an employment contract in form of retaliation is in any case invalid (Art. 20 par.3).
Art. 23 (1) - Penalties
(a) hinder or attempt to hinder reporting: “Imprisonment and a fine” Art. 23
(b) retaliate against reporting person: “Imprisonment and a fine” Art. 23
(c) persons bringing vexatious proceedings against reporting person: “Imprisonment and a fine” Art. 23
(d) breach the duty of maintaining the confidentiality of reporting persons: “Imprisonment and a fine” Art. 23 According to Greek Criminal Code, when there is no specific mention, under “imprisonment” is the deprivation of liberty from ten days to five years to be understood. Also what the term fine concerns, this is calculated in daily units which also (unless defined differently) cannot be more than three hundred and sixty. Unless otherwise specified, the rate of each daily unit cannot be lower than one euro nor higher than one hundred.
Art. 23 (2) first sentence - Penalties for false reporting
Imprisonment of at least 2 years and a fine (Art. 23 par. 3).
Art. 25 (1) - Further national rights of reporting persons
According to Art. 18 par. 3, if the report or public disclosure constitutes a criminal, disciplinary, administrative violation or misconduct for the reporting person, any criminal, disciplinary, administrative, or civil proceeding brought against the reporting party for the reported violation shall be suspended until the completion of the investigation of the report. Furthermore, when a reporting person has participated in a violation that constitutes a criminal offense according to articles 235 to 260 (the so called offenses of service), 390 (misappropriation) and 396 (active and passive corruption in private sector) of the Greek Criminal Code, is exempt from any disciplinary and administrative sanction, if the conditions of par. 2 and 3 of article 263A are met, meaning when this person contributes essentially in the revieling of the violation.
Final remarks:
In Art.10 of the greek law, the duties of the person in charge of managing and monitoring the internal reportings, representing the internal reporting channel in private sector, are extensively described. In addition, in Art.15 of the greek law there is a separate provision that regulates the processing of personal data according to General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The person in charge of monitoring the internal reporting channels in private and public sectors as well as the National Transparency Authority are defined as processors of personal data.Τhey are obliged to take any measure necessary, so that, when submitting and monitoring the reports, only the personal data that is absolutely necessary and appropriate for achieving the purposes of this law is collected. There is also an addition in the retaliations that are forbidden, according to Art. 19 of the Directive. According to Art. 17 p) of the greek law, its forbidden to deny reasonable accommodation to reporting perons with disabilities.