Strasbourg, 22/06/2000 (Agence Europe) - The European Parliament approved, in third reading, according to the codecision procedure, the draft Directive, defined with the Council, on the fight against payment delays in commercial transactions. Thus follows the rapporteur, Simon Murphy (Labour, Britain), who, at the end of long and difficult negotiations with the Council, was able to recommend the adoption of the text based on the following main elements: - implementation of the Directive, not only in the private sector, but also in the public sector; - respect for the notion of "maintained ownership", according to which the Member States ensure that the vendor keeps the goods until there payment is complete; - banning of the "abuse of contractual freedom" to the detriment of the creditor; - possibility for "reasonable" compensation for recovery costs incurred; - setting of a 7% interest rate for late payments (the Council wanted 6%, the EP 8% by rounding up this rate with the ECB rate, the present total is 10.5%).