The European Commissioner for Internal Market, Thierry Breton, said on Monday 16 November, during his speech at the annual SME assembly, that the crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic made the SME strategy presented at the beginning of the year more necessary than ever.
During his speech, the Commissioner focused in particular on the issue of late payments, which negatively impact the majority of SMEs: less than 40% of SMEs are being paid on time, according to the Commissioner, and each late payment generates four new unpaid invoices, he said.
For the time being, the Commissioner wants to strengthen the implementation of the Late Payment Directive. On this occasion, the Commissioner confirmed the forthcoming creation of a European observatory to monitor late payments, announced in the strategy (see EUROPE 12431/11). This observatory will focus primarily on the construction sector, he said.
The announcement of the creation of the observatory was welcomed by SMEunited, which represents the interests of SMEs, in particular by its Vice-President, Matilda Mielind. The latter has asked the Commission to open infringement proceedings against Member States that do not comply with the Late Payments Directive, which it believes needs to be revised to effectively guarantee a standard payment period of 30 days. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)