Romania

The article in the Romanian law is just as in the directive.

YES. Art.2 para. 3 of the law states that „this law also applies to persons who anonymously report or publicly disclose information on violations of the law”. Then art.8, para. 1 sates „ (1) The person designated to handle the report has the obligation not to disclose the identity of the whistleblower nor the information that would allow for his direct or indirect identification, except in the case where he has the express consent of the whistleblower”.

A clear preference for the internal reporting can be inferred from the wording in the Law361/2022, but active encouragement or incentivization is not provided. Art 5(2): “Reporting on violations of the law shall be carried out mainly through existing internal reporting channels. The whistleblower who reports may, however, choose between the internal reporting channel and the external reporting channel.”

There is no obligation for legal entities in private sector with less than 50 emplyees to have internal channels. The law provides that in the absence of internal reporting channels in their case, the whistleblower who reports violations of the law shall use the external channel.

All public legal entities regardless of the number of employees have to establish internal reporting channels and procedures for internal reporting. The only exeption is for municipalities with less than 10,000 inhabitants or less than 50 workers, which may group together and use or share resources in terms of receiving reports.

Art. 9 (3) allows municipalities with fewer than 10.000 inhabitans or with fewer than 50 workers to share the internal reporting channels and also the ‘subsequent actions’ (without mentioning explicitly what these actions might include). Due to the large number of small municipalities in Romania (2686), decentralize form of the Romanian administration, and lack of active monitoring, no links or examples of shared reporting channels can be provided at this time.

Regarding the competent authorities to receive external reports, the law provides some flexibility in the sense that it appoints one institution in particular to receive these reports, namely National Integrity Agency (original name, “Agenția Națională de Integritate”, acronym ANI – www.integritate.eu), but also lets the whistleblower and ANI address other public institutions that have specific competence (Art. 12 (1), and 3 (15)).

Yes.

Yes.

No.

Only free legal asistance for the wistheblower in case of retaliation for the disciplinary and judicial proceedings.

N/A

Please provide how high are respective penalties:
(a) hinder or attempt to hinder reporting: from 2.000 lei to 20.000 lei, that is aproximate from 400 Euro to 4000 Euro (applied only to the designated person)
(b) retaliate against reporting person:that is not object for a financial penalty. In case of retaliation, the whistleblower must go to court to settle the issue. Civil or criminal liability are not excluded in this case, depending on the nature of retaliation.
(c) persons bringing vexatious proceedings against reporting person: This is not provided as such. See below the financial sanctions provided by the law, apart from the ones at letter a) and d)
(d) breach the duty of maintaining the confidentiality of reporting persons:from 4.000 lei to 40.000 lei, that is aproximate from 800 Euro to 800 Euro (applied only to natural persons, not legal persons). Other sanctions: 1) unjustified refusal of public and privatte entities to respond to requests from the External Channel, the fine is from 3.000 lei to 30.000 lei (aprox. 600 to 6000 Euro). 2) failure by legal persons to comply with the obligation to establish internal reporting carries the same penalty as above. 3) failure by legal persons to ensure the internal reporting means carries a fee from 4.000 to 40.000 (800 to 8.000 Euro).

Art. 29 includes penalties for “false reporting”, if the act was not committed under such conditions as to be considered a crime according to the law. The penalty ranges from 2.500 lei to 30.000 lei (500-6.000 Euro).

At the request of the whistleblower under disciplinary investigation, within a maximum period of one year from the date of the report, the bar association in the district where the whistleblower’s activity takes place shall provide free legal assistance during the disciplinary procedure. Moreover, at the request of the whistleblower who is subject to disciplinary investigation as a result of internal, external reporting or public disclosure, disciplinary committees or other similar bodies in the public or private entity are obliged to invite the press and a representative of the trade union or professional association or a representative of the employees, as the case may be. The announcement shall be made by means of a press release on the website of the respective public or private entity at least 3 working days before the meeting, under penalty of the nullity of the report and of the disciplinary sanction applied.