Internal reporting to the Ministry of the Environment, Climate and Biodiversity
Last update
The Ministry of the Environment, Climate and Biodiversity (hereinafter referred to as 'the ministry'), in collaboration with the Government IT Centre, has launched an online assistant on MyGuichet.lu which allows whistleblowers to submit internal reports, without authentication, regarding breaches of the law that may have occurred within:
- the ministry itself; and/or
- one of the departments under its responsibility.
The MyGuichet.lu procedure made available to you, allows you, as a whistleblower, to report these breaches via a secure internal reporting channel to the 'reporting officers' duly authorised to analyse and process such reports.
Please note that safeguards have been put in place to guarantee the confidentiality of your reports and to protect you against any form of retaliation in accordance with the law of 16 May 2023.
Who is concerned
As a whistleblower wanting to report a breach, only the following persons can use the internal reporting channel:
- those who have obtained information about breaches in a professional context in their capacity as salaried workers (including civil servants, state employees and workers). The information must have been obtained in the course of their current working relationship with the ministry and/or one of the administrations under its supervision, namely the Nature and Forest Agency, the Environment Agency and the Water Management Agency.
It is recommended to use internal reporting channels, but you can also use external reporting channels. External reporting channels are made available to you through the following 22 competent authorities within their respective missions and responsibilities:
- the Financial Sector Supervisory Commission (Commission de surveillance du secteur financier - CSSF):
- the Supervisory Authority for the Insurance Sector (Commissariat aux assurances - CAA)
- the Competition Authority (Autorité de la concurrence)
- the Registration Duties, Estates and VAT Authority (Administration de l’enregistrement, des domaines et de la TVA - AED)
- the Inspectorate of Labour and Mines (Inspection du travail et des mines - ITM)
- the National Commission for Data Protection (Commission nationale pour la protection des données - CNPD)
- the Centre for Equal Treatment (Centre pour l’égalité de traitement - CET)
- the Ombudsman, as part of their mission to carry out external monitoring of places where persons deprived of their liberty are held
- the Ombudsman fir Kanner a Jugendlecher
- the Luxembourg Regulatory Institute (Institut luxembourgeois de régulation - ILR)
- the Independent Luxembourg Broadcasting Authority (Autorité luxembourgeoise indépendante de l’audiovisuel - ALIA)
- the Bar associations of Luxembourg and Diekirch
- the Chamber of Notaries (Chambre des notaires)
- the Medical Board (Collège médical)
- the Nature and Forest Agency (Administration de la nature et des forêts - ANF)
- the Water Management Agency (Administration de la gestion de l’eau - AGE)
- the Air Navigation Administration (Administration de la navigation aérienne - ANA)
- the National Service of the Mediator of consumption (Service national du Médiateur de la consommation)
- the Order of Architects and Consulting Engineers (Ordre des architectes et des ingénieurs-conseils - OAI)
- the Order of Chartered Accountants (Ordre des experts-comptables - OEC)
- the Luxembourg Institute of Registered Auditors (Institut des réviseurs d'entreprises - IRE)
- the Luxembourg Inland Revenue (Administration des contributions directes - ACD)
How to proceed
What can be reported?
As a whistleblower, you can report any breach of national law and/or European Union law, that is to say, acts or omissions that:
- are unlawful; or
- defeat the object or the purpose of the directly applicable rules of national law or European law.
You can communicate any information, including reasonable suspicions, concerning
- actual or potential breaches; and/or
- attempts to conceal such breaches;
which have occurred or are very likely to occur:
- in the organisation in which you work or have worked; or
- in another organisation with which you are or have been in contact through your work.
What types of reports are not covered by the law?
The following reports are not covered by the law:
- reports of breaches relating to national security; and
- reports originating from whistleblowers whose relationships are covered by:
- medical confidentiality;
- the confidentiality of lawyer-client relations;
- the professional confidentiality binding on notaries and court bailiffs;
- the secrecy of judicial deliberations;
- rules on criminal procedure.
Please note: you may not disclose information which you have acquired or to which you have gained access by committing a criminal offence.
What are the conditions for protection?
To benefit from the protection for whistleblowers, you must:
- have had reasonable grounds to believe that the information on breaches reported was true at the time of reporting and that such information falls within the scope of the law of 16 May 2023; and
- have made:
- an internal report: through the reporting channels of your company or administration;
- an external report: through the reporting channels of the competent authority;
- a public disclosure under the following conditions:
- following an internal or external report that yielded no result; or
- In the event of imminent and manifest danger to the public interest, such as when there is an emergency situation or a risk of irreversible harm; or
- in the case of an external report, if there is a risk of retaliation or if there is little or no chance that the breach will be remedied.
Submission of an internal report to the ministry
You can report breaches to the ministry in Luxembourgish, French, German or English:
- via the 'Whistleblower' procedure without authentication on the secure MyGuichet.lu platform; or
- by email to alerte.interne@mev.etat.lu; or
- by telephone at (+352) 247 86 86 3; or
- in person or by post at the ministry's address
Ministère de l’Environnement, du Climat et de la Biodiversité
Délégués aux signalements
4, Place de l’Europe
L-1499 Luxembourg
Any report submitted by post must be sent in a sealed envelope addressed to the reporting officers (délégué aux signalements) and marked 'confidentiel' in order to guarantee the anonymity of the sender.
The secure MyGuichet.lu platform is to be preferred insofar as this channel provides the best possible guarantee of independence and autonomy for the receipt and processing of reports of breaches received in accordance with the law of 16 May 2023.
The platform guarantees the integrity and confidentiality of the information provided. Only the ministry's 'reporting officers' have access to the information submitted in this way. These agents are bound by professional secrecy.
Any processing of personal data carried out under the law of 16 May 2023 is carried out in accordance with Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Directive 95/46/EC or 'GDPR'.
As a public authority processing personal data, the ministry is bound to respect the obligations incumbent on it in its capacity as a data controller within the meaning of the GDPR.
For any questions regarding the processing of your personal data by the ministry, please consult the data protection declaration page (French, Pdf, 180 Kb).
Online services and forms
Who to contact
Ministry of the Environment, Climate and Biodiversity Reporting officers
- Address:
- 4, place de l’Europe L-1499 Luxembourg Luxembourg
- Phone:
- (+352) 247 86 86 3
- Email address:
- alerte.interne@mev.etat.lu
- Website:
- http://www.emwelt.lu
Related procedures and links
Links
Further information
Pdf • 180 Kb
[Abréviation du nom de l’entité]
Legal references
-
Directive (EU) 2019/1937 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 October 2019
on the protection of persons who report breaches of Union law
-
Loi du 16 mai 2023
portant transposition de la directive (UE) 2019/1937 du Parlement européen et du Conseil du 23 octobre 2019 sur la protection des personnes qui signalent des violations du droit de l’Union.
