It takes up to 65 days to get paid on average by an authority which means that many companies may experience unnecessary cash flow problems.
In order to receive payment from the private sector, the average time is now 55 days. This should not be acceptable since the goal is that payments should be made within a maximum of 30 days.
This was one of the messages that emerged when the European Parliament´s committee on internal market issues, IMCO, held a hearing this week. The issue discussed was the EU Commission's proposal to revise the directive on late payments in commercial transactions.
The existing regulations have proved to be inadequate in several cases, and are therefore in need of revision. The European Parliament´s rapporteur Barbara Weiler expects that the report will be completed in January 2010 at the earliest.
More information can be found
here Cecilia Helland