Brussels, 16/03/2009 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission is putting the finishing touches to its legislative proposal amending directive 2000/35/EC on payment delays in commercial transactions. As we went to press, it was still unclear whether or not the legislative proposal would be presented on Wednesday 18 March, an extra week possibly being needed. The Commission would appear to have opted for a timescale of 30 days for territorial entities to pay companies with which they have entered into a contract. According to a representative of a European SME organisation, “the intention is right”, but the proposal is couched in such terms that it would not prohibit public authorities from paying later than the 30 days, compensation equivalent to 5% of the contract being considered if payment does not take place within the set time. “So as not to endanger their relations with public authorities, companies will not dare use this option,” the above-mentioned source fears. In Europe, a quarter of insolvency cases are due to late payments. A study carried out by the Swedish company Intrum Justitiia shows that public bodies are the worst payers, taking an average of 65 days to make payment, 10 days longer than economic operators. However, the proposal will not include relations between businesses and consumers (“B2C”) within the scope of the directive. (M.B./transl.rt)