Brussels, 30/04/2010 (Agence Europe) - The European Builders Confederation (EBC) - a professional organisation representing national associations of craftsmen and SMEs in the construction sector - welcomed the adoption on Wednesday 28 April of the draft report by Barbara Weiler (S&D, Germany) on the recast of the late payments directive by the EP internal market committee (EUROPE 10128). “It is important to note that MEPs decided to send a signal to public administrations, which must have less derogatory powers in payments of public procurement contracts”, EBC President Andrea Marconi says in a press release. The public authorities must settle their bills within 30 days, 60 days in some circumstances. Regretting the fact that MEPs have decided not to grant compensation to companies suffering from late payments, the EBC calls for the possibility of inflicting graduated fines of up to 3% to be considered. The European Diagnostic Manufacturers Association (EDMA) for in vitro diagnosis criticises a derogation authorising public health bodies and public medico-social institutions to pay within 60 days. This exception could put pressure on good payers, EDMA says, also regretting that the stricter initial model used for calculating financial compensation to be paid to a company suffering from late payments has been discarded. (M.B./transl.jl)