Fighting Late Payments in Europe: Recent Progress and Way Forward

Late payments remain one of the problems that affect European SMEs. Thousands of companies suffer late collection terms that damage their finances and cut on their profit margins, thus placing millions of jobs at risk.

In her speech on the State of the Union of 2022, the president of the European Commission promised to face this problem with an ambitious reform of Directive 2011/7 EU on combating Late Payments.

The European Commission will soon present its proposal for the revision of Directive 2011/7, which stands out as a unique opportunity to produce the structural changes in the Member States most affected by late payment, such as Spain, Italy, Belgium, or Greece.

Employers’ organisations members of SME United, PIMEC (Catalonia) and Confartigianato Imprese (Italy), as well as Plataforma Multisectorial contra la Morosidad (Multisectorial Platform against Late Payements) hold a debate on the new legislation on late payments at the European Economic and Social Committee in Brussels on July 3rd.

DIARY

14 h Registration and coffee

14.30 h Welcome

Mira-Maria Danisman, member of the EESC, Group 1

Marco Granelli, President of Confartigianato Imprese

Antoni Cañete, President of PIMEC and PMcM. Vice-President of SMEunited

14.45 h Keynote speech from the European Commission

Antonella Correra, Policy Officer, DG Grow, European Commission

15 h Address from the European Parliament

Martina Dlabajová, co-chair SME Intergroup, Member of the European Parliament

15.15 h Roundtable of national and sectoral experts

Panelists:

• Antoni Cañete, President of PIMEC and PMcM, Vice-President of SMEunited (Spain)
• Bruno Panieri, Director Economic Policy, Confartigianato Imprese (Italy)
• Fernando Sigchos, Secretary General, European Builders Confederation, EBC
• Sanna Lempiäinen, Legal Counsel, Federation of Finnish Enterprises (Finland)
• Kate Foster, Senior International Affairs Advisor, Federation of Small Business (UK)

Moderator: Luc Hendrickx, SMEunited

16.45 h Questions and Answers

17 h Presentation of European Payment Report 2023

Marte Gran Kristoffersen, Intrum

17.15 h Closing of the event

Veronique Willems, Secretary General SMEunited

Pietro de Lotto, Member of the EESC, Group 1

Enterprises affected by late payments are encouraged to attend either in person or online. The event will feature simultaneous translation into English, Spanish and Italian.

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