GRTU welcomes European Commission's efforts to combat late payments

The European Commission's determination to fight late payments has been welcomed by the Chamber of Small and Medium Enterprises, GRTU.

The Commission is seeking to combat late payments by strengthening the existing directive on late payments.

In a statement, the GRTU said it embraced the Commission's statement that governments and public authorities would commit to paying their suppliers on time, knowing that public authorities are responsible for two thirds of late payments.

Where late payments by businesses could, in rare cases, be caused by reasons outside their influence, late payments by public authorities could barely ever be legitimised.

Public authorities dealt with tax payer money and paying late to businesses meant that the government was taking money from its citizens twice.

At a time when the efficiency of public spending is highly scrutinised, there was no excuse for public authorities to pay late.

The GRTU said that certain provisions on contractual clauses constituted a threat to the freedom of contract within the context of business to business transactions.

"To the commerce sector the freedom of contract of B2B relations is essential, as trading credit (accompanied by the possibility to reach contractual agreements on payment terms exceeding 30 days) forms one of the sectors basic means of access to finance.

"Any minimum harmonisation of payment terms, that does not take into account the nature of the product, its shelf life and the sector in which it is traded, is rejected by GRTU. The same goes for any minimum harmonisation that does not make a distinction between SME suppliers with a weak market position and large suppliers, both local and international, with a strong market position. In this situation there is no justification for limiting the contractual freedom."

The GRTU said it did not see the advantage of changing the status quo by enabling organisations other than those representing exclusively SMEs, to retrospectively challenge contractual clauses on which both parties would have already agreed.