Internal reporting to the Ministry of Family Affairs, Solidarity, Living Together and Reception of Refugees
Last update
Whistleblowers who report breaches of legal rules are protected against all forms of retaliation.
A uniform European legal framework has been created to protect whistleblowers in certain fields of action of the European Union (EU).
The Ministry of Family Affairs, Solidarity, Living Together and Reception of Refugees (hereinafter referred to as 'ministry'), in collaboration with the Government IT Centre (CTIE), has launched an online assistant on MyGuichet.lu which allows whistleblowers to submit internal reports on breaches within the Ministry without authentication.
You are encouraged to submit an internal report first before submitting an external report to one of the competent authorities designated by the law of 16 May 2023 (Article 18), unless internal reporting could be detrimental to you (e.g. retaliation by your employer).
The Office for Whistleblowers can provide information and assistance to anyone wishing to make a report.
Who is concerned
A whistleblower who has obtained information about breaches in a professional context with the ministry (current, past or future working relationship), such as:
- salaried workers (including civil servants and State employees);
- job candidates;
- persons whose work relationship has been terminated;
- persons who are self-employed;
- shareholders and members of an administrative, management or supervisory body of a company, including non-executive members;
- volunteers and paid or unpaid trainees;
- anyone working under the supervision and direction of contractors, subcontractors and suppliers.
The protection also extends to:
- facilitators (natural persons assisting whistleblowers on a confidential basis);
- third parties who have a work-based or personal relationship with whistleblowers and who are at risk of retaliation, such as the whistleblower's colleagues or relatives;
- legal entities that the whistleblower owns, works for or is otherwise connected with in a work-related context;
- persons who have reported or disclosed information on breaches anonymously, but who are subsequently identified and suffer retaliation;
- persons reporting breaches to relevant institutions, bodies, offices or agencies of the European Union.
How to proceed
Which breaches 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
- with which you are or have been in contact through your work.
What types of reports are not concerned?
The protection does not concern:
- reports of breaches relating to national security; and
- whistleblowers whose relationships are covered by:
- medical confidentiality;
- the confidentiality of lawyer-client relations;
- the professional secrecy to which a notary or court bailiff is bound;
- 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?
In order to qualify for protection against all forms of retaliation, 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; and
- have made a report:
- either internally: through the reporting channels of your company or administration;
- or externally: through the reporting channels of one of the competent authorities;
- or by way of public disclosure: following external reporting that yielded no satisfactory result.
Submission of an internal report to the ministry
If, as a whistleblower, you wish to report breaches observed in your professional relationship with the ministry, you can contact it in Luxembourgish, French, German or English using the following means:
- via the 'Whistleblower' procedure without authentication on the secure MyGuichet.lu platform; or
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.
- by email to: alerte@fm.etat.lu.
The ministry's reporting channel guarantees the completeness, integrity and confidentiality of the information transmitted. The information transmitted in this way is accessible only to certain authorised staff, who 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.
For any questions regarding the processing of your personal data by the ministry, please consult this page.
Online services and forms
Who to contact
Ministry of Family Affairs, Solidarity, Living Together and Reception of Refugees Whistleblowing
- Address:
- 13c, rue de Bitbourg L-1273 Luxembourg Luxembourg
- Email address:
- alerte@fm.etat.lu
Related procedures and links
Links
Further information
on the website of the Ministry of Family Affairs, Solidarity, Living Together and Reception of Refugees
Legal references
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.
