Strasbourg, 14/12/2005 (Agence Europe) - The report by British Labour member Arlène McCarthy on the proposal for a regulation aimed at creating a European procedure for injunctions to pay was adopted on Tuesday at first reading. Generally speaking, MEPs accept the compromise reached between the Commission, which recommended a uniform procedure for recovery of unchallenged claims that could extend to purely domestic matters, and the Council, which hoped to restrict the scope of the future instrument to cross-border matters alone. The regulation aims to create a rapid and effective mechanism for recovering unchallenged credits in order to improve the situation of economic operators who are faced with late or bad payers, mainly in cross-border transactions. It concerns civil and commercial demands for money and does not apply to matrimonial regimes, to bankruptcies or to social security. The Commission's proposal comes within the framework of legal cooperation in civil matters which was brought under Community scope by the Amsterdam Treaty, and follows in the wake of the 2002 Green Paper on a European procedure on injunctions to pay (EUROPE 8371). On this dossier submitted to co-decision, the JHA Council of 1 and 2 December had reached an agreement on a general approach (EUROPE 9082). The current situation creates problems for economic operators who have to come to grips with unforeseen difficulties, delays and costs when they are faced with unfamiliar procedures in another country. The SMEs, in particular, are expected to take advantage of a simple and less costly procedure allowing payments to be made in all European countries. MEPs amended the Commission proposal so that individuals may use the European payment injunction procedure, including for national disputes, if they consider it more appropriate. MEPs also adopted a number of amendments with a view to simplifying the procedure. In a concern for greater subsidiarity and proportionality, they felt that, for cross-border payments, the European payment injunction procedure was to be used as a complement to the existing national systems. When purely national matters are concerned, they considered that Member States should have the choice between adopting the new European procedure, or not. Finally, MEPs invited the Commission to present a cost-benefit analysis for the new procedure five years after it takes effect.