Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-06-14-Speech-3-369"
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"en.20000614.15.3-369"2
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"Mr President, about four or five years ago, former Commissioner Christos Papoutsis told me at a meeting that he was considering some sort of attempt to regulate late payments. I smiled and told him that I wished such a thing were possible, because it would be a relief to millions of SMEs, but that I thought it would be extremely difficult. I am pleased that we now have before us a directive making that wish come true.
We have heard and we know what it costs SMEs, what it costs the European economy, what it costs workers when certain companies, which can and do throw their financial and purchasing weight around, or public sectors which can and do throw their weight around, acquire extra liquidity free of charge, at no cost to them, but at the expense, mainly, of SMEs. Approximately half a million workers lost their jobs and one in four companies went bust because bigger and stronger companies got away with not paying them on time.
Today marks the beginning of a new era, an era which will, of course, dawn in two years’ time, once this directive, which gives SMEs different prospects for a different future, has been transposed into national legislation. It gives them reason to believe that they too have the power to trade in a fair competitive environment, an environment which has been missing all these years, an environment which the SMEs of the European Union have been trying in vain to achieve. Have you any idea how soul-destroying it is when a small businessman, with limited access to bank loans, is expected to subsidise companies with a far bigger cash flow or the huge public sector of a country? It is a bitter pill to swallow.
What I can say is that the negotiations between the European Parliament and the Council were a most pleasant experience. Of course, I can say now that it was a pleasant experience because the outcome has been extremely positive for Parliament. And it would be no exaggeration to say that Parliament was the institution of the European Union which understood exactly where the interests of European society and European business lie, which is why we used all our arguments and exerted all our pressure to persuade the Council that all the European Parliament’s proposed amendments went in the right direction. And, of course, I must thank the SMEs and Parliament and the Executive Commission, which also helped to achieve this result, and it is a good result.
Finally, I should like to close by saying that every SME in the European Union and millions of workers in small- and medium-sized commercial, handicraft and professional companies in the European Union will look towards us tomorrow, towards the plenary of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, in the belief that a new day has dawned for them."@en1
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