The state of the proposal for a regulation on combating late payments in commercial transactions (COM(2023)0533)

Priority question for written answer P-003939/2025
to the Commission
Rule 144
Diana Riba i Giner (Verts/ALE)

In her 2022 State of the Union address[1], Ursula von der Leyen stated that one in four bankruptcies in the EU is due to bills not being paid on time.

According to the European Payment Observatory's 2024 Annual Report, 56 % of companies report accepting longer payment terms to avoid damaging customer relationships.

Intrum's 2025 European Payments Report[2] warns that late payments may put 10 million companies at risk and shows that 71 % of the surveyed companies are in favour of the Commission's Proposal. The report indicates that the EU average payment term for the public sector is 69 days reaching 73 days in some countries.

Recent rulings by the Court of Justice of the European Union also demonstrate that late payments remain a problem for SMEs.

Parliament's legislative resolution[3], which was ratified by the new members of the Committee on Internal Market and Consumer Protection in September 2024, demonstrates its commitment to this proposal.

Nevertheless, several countries continue to block negotiations in the Council without presenting data to support their position.

What is the Commission doing to try to unblock this situation, which undermines the competitiveness of SMEs?

Submitted: 8.10.2025

• [1] https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/speech_22_5493.
• [2] https://www.intrum.com/insights/publications/epr-2025/.
• [3] Texts adopted, P9_TA(2024)0299.