The members of the Committee on the Internal Market (IMCO) have adopted the report by Róża Thun und Hohenstein (Renew Europe, German) on late payments. After the vote was postponed in February (see EUROPE 13356/2), the political groups managed to agree on new compromise amendments. At the heart of the discussions are the maximum payment periods for companies and the possibilities for extending these periods. The strict terms proposed by the Commission have been revised to give debtor companies greater flexibility.
The maximum payment period for business-to-business invoices remains 30 days. However, several extensions to this deadline are possible. Firstly, the creditor and debtor can contractually agree an extended payment term of up to 60 days.
Secondly, the payment period is automatically 120 days for slow-moving or seasonal products. The European Commission will have to publish a list of the goods covered by this provision before the regulation comes into force.
Thirdly, Member States will be able to extend the deadlines by a further 30 days where a verification procedure of the products delivered is necessary.
Finally, the current, more flexible directive will continue to apply for two years to micro-enterprises and micro-entrepreneurs.
The rapporteur of the text, Róża Thun Und Hohenstein, had argued for shorter deadlines, but was nonetheless pleased with the adoption: “We wanted to do better, but a compromise is a compromise and this is a fair solution”, she said a few minutes before the vote.
The same is true of the Greens/EFA, who supported the text despite the more flexible deadlines. “Faced with the dogma of certain political families on the centre and right of the political spectrum, we had to make compromises to obtain a majority”, said Claude Gruffat (Greens/EFA, French). However, they welcome the fact that the text mentions fixed deadlines.
SMEUnited, the SME envoy, regrets the possibility of contractual clauses for companies, as well as the provisions on the verification procedure. “This would open the door to payment periods of 90 days, which would worsen the situation in several countries and would not protect European SMEs against market abuse”, said the organisation.
The representative of European employers, BusinessEurope, for its part, would have liked more contractual freedom. For the organisation, the various derogations only add to the complexity for companies.
The draft regulation will not see the light of day before the elections, as the EU Council is not close to reaching an agreement on the text. During a debate on 7 March, the EU’s internal market ministers expressed serious reservations about the main aspects of the text (see EUROPE 13366/5).
See the compromise amendments adopted in IMCO: https://aeur.eu/f/bfi (Original version in French by Léa Marchal)