Thursday, December 12th, 2024

Late payment Dec 2024

European SMEs urge EU-Council to adopt new Late Payment Regulation proposed by the European Commission in 2023

Joint declaration by European Entrepreneurs CEA-PME and European Small Business Alliance ESBA for the EU-Council of Ministers responsible for Internal Market & Industry Nov. 28th 2024

We, the representatives of 2 European Confederations of SME associations, representing together 40 national, regional and sectoral associations of SME and Mid-Caps in the EU and in neighbouring countries, and with more than 1.5 Million member companies from all over
the Continent

Call European Member States’ Ministers responsible for the Internal Market and Industry,gathered on Nov. 28th 2024 in Brussels for the EU-Council on Competitiveness to pave the
way for the full adoption of the new Late Payment Regulation proposed by the EuropeanCommission in September 2023.

The proposed Regulation is sufficiently balanced and adequate to address the challenges of late payments that still weigh as a heavy burden on the financial capacities of millions of micro-, small and medium-sized companies as well as smaller and larger Mid-Caps.

It is urgent, as the current economic crisis in some EU-member states like Germany and France is spreading more and more to other EU-member states and the EU’s neighbouringcountries, and as we have experienced in the past decades this will also impact heavily onthe payment terms, despite the current Late Payment Directive of 2011 in place.

Both the financial and sovereign debts crises between 2008 and 2013, as well as the economic shock caused by the COVID pandemic, proofed that the current legislation to prevent public bodies and private companies from paying on time to their service providers is strongly insufficient.

Hundreds of thousands of smaller and mid-sized companies suffer heavy debt burden and the risk of insolvency, or have already been forced into insolvency, due to late payments by public and private clients, which currently in Europe (2023) exceed 50 days B2B and reach nearly 70 days for G2B with a steady tendency to grow from year to year 1.

We think that it is high time to make the liquidity of Europe’seconomic backbone a priority, and therefore adopting now the proposed Late Payment Regulation as soon as possible.

Brussels, Nov. 28th 2024