Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/1999-12-15-Speech-3-334"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.19991215.12.3-334"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spoken text |
"Mr President, first of all I want to thank you. A few parliamentarians will know the file very well. The Commission's proposal for a directive on late payments contains a package of measures to combat late payment in commercial transactions in the European Community. The directive applies to late payment between all enterprises including the public sector. It provides the legal framework to deter late payers from paying late or from imposing unduly long payment periods on their partners. Moreover, it renders the procedures for recovering debts quicker and more efficient.
The common position agreed by the Council in July of this year has cut six operational articles of our proposal down to two. I am conscious of the fact that it is not easy for Member States to agree to changes in their legislation. However, the Commission has indicated that it would like to see a more ambitious approach to late payment. Without ambitious provisions, the directive will not reach its objective. I therefore welcome the interest Parliament has taken in our proposal and I congratulate the rapporteur, Mr Murphy, and the coordinators of the other political groups, on their excellent work.
Turning now to the proposed amendments, I welcome most of them as they revive many of the Commission's original proposals and try to correct deficiencies in the common position. In this respect the Commission can accept Amendments Nos 1, 3, 4, 5, 7 to 17, 19, 21, 22, 24 and 26. There are other amendments where the Commission agrees with most of the substance but would prefer to reformulate them. This is the case with Amendments Nos 6, 20 and 25. In particular we would like to reduce the number of reports that the Commission is being asked to produce in Amendment No 25. It is better to use that time to pay bills more quickly, as was said by Mr MacCormick.
Finally, there are a very few amendments which the Commission cannot accept for specific reasons, and these are Amendments Nos 2, 18 and 23. Mrs Thyssen has just spoken about Amendment No 18. We do not think that Amendment No 18, concerning a debtor’s obligation to furnish a bill of exchange in the case of a long contractual payment period has a chance of being accepted by the Council. In fact it seems that this amendment is inspired by the law of one Member State and that the proposed rule has not worked well so far in that state. As a result, 15 Member States have opposed the proposal.
We would also prefer not to modify Article 4 on the duration of recovery procedures. The discussion in the Council was a difficult one. We believe that the result is satisfactory. Reducing the duration from 90 to 60 days, as proposed in Amendment No 23, would have the consequence of causing the Council to revert to the old version of the Commission proposal and exclude the period needed by the debtor for his defence. This would add some 30 days for most countries and the result would be similar to the one we now have.
To summarise, the Commission expects that this proposal will bring significant benefits to businesses, in particular small and medium-sized enterprises. Reducing late payment will improve businesses' cash flow. It will also reduce financing costs caused by being paid late and the heavy administrative cost of pursuing debts.
I hope that early next year we can come back to the broader issues of enterprise policy. We need a new enterprise policy atmosphere in Europe and an environment where creating small and medium-sized enterprises will be easier and cheaper, and will be encouraged. That is the only chance for Europe to guarantee that our unemployment figures, which are too high, will be reduced. We need a lively, growing SME sector. Let this proposal be one part of this new approach."@en1
|
| lpv:unclassifiedMetadata |
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples