Madrid, April 26, 2024.- The Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency participated in the presentation of the WiS-H project, an initiative coordinated by the Hay Derecho Foundation and co-financed by the European Commission that aims to create a safe and favorable environment for whistleblowers of corruption in Spain and Portugal.

As members of the project, institutions such as the University of Murcia, the Faculty of Law of the University of Lisbon (NOVA School of Law) and the Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency accompany the Hay Derecho Foundation.

Present at this first meeting were Maïté Vanwesemael, Policy Officer of the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA) of the European Commission; the President of Hay Derecho, Segismundo Álvarez, as well as its secretary general, Elisa de la Nuez, and its general director, Safira Cantos.

Also present were Fernando Jiménez Sánchez, director of the Chair of Good Governance and Public Integrity at the University of Murcia; Júlia Miralles de Imperial Pujol, PhD post-doctoral researcher at the same university; Francisco Pereira Coutinho, PhD in Law from the Faculty of Law of the Universidade Nova de Lisboa; Julia Gracia, coordinator of the Compliance Lab at the NOVA School of Law; Nicolás Rodríguez García, Professor of Procedural Law at the University of Salamanca; and Cristina Fernández González, PhD and lecturer in the Degree in Criminology at the International University of Valencia (VIU).

On behalf of the Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency, Teresa Clemente, Deputy Director and Director of Legal Affairs, and María Isabel Quintero Soria, attached to the Deputy Directorate and Legal Affairs, attended.

Three whistleblowers of corruption participated in this first meeting to tell their experience: the prosecutor Ignacio Stampa, the engineer Gracia Ballesteros, and Iván Menéndez, who denounced in the framework of the private company.

The main objective of the WiS-H project is to work towards an enabling environment for the protection of whistleblowers of corruption in Spain and Portugal. To this end, through an analytical study, the whistleblowing environment in both countries will be analysed, and mutual learning and cooperation between competent authorities and civil society organisations will be facilitated to monitor and support the implementation of European rules on whistleblower protection.