Brussels, 21 October 2010

Ralf Resch, General Secretary of CEEP, stated yesterday that the vote in the European
Parliament of the final version of the Late Payments Directive created a balanced set of rules for Public Enterprises and Authorities as well as SMEs. He said, “After a long and hard fight, CEEP could convince the majority of the Members of the European Parliament that Public Services have a special role. This has been accepted in the final compromise. CEEP thanks all those who have contributed to this result”. The result showed that Members of Parliament are sensitive to the issues of Public Enterprises and Services of General Interest.

The first draft by the European Commission on Late Payments would have meant massive problems for public enterprises and providers of services of general interest.
In a co‐ordinated initiative with its members and other actors, CEEP succeeded in putting in amendments into this draft. The result is a directive which will secure the liquidity of Small and Medium Businesses (SME) and at the same time does not give way to discrimination of public enterprises or authorities. The new directive will establish a minimum standard, which Member States of the EU are free to establish tighter rules. The directive applies to B2B relations between public entities and private business.

The final vote of Parliament took place on 20 October 2010 in Strasbourg. Now it is up to the Member States to implement it. Ralf Resch continued: “CEEP will alert its members that they should accompany the implementation process very closely so that the positive message from Brussels and Strasbourg shall not be lost.”

For further information, please contact:
Ulrike NEUHAUSER, Acting Director of CEEP ‐ tel. +32 (0) 2 219 27 98

CEEP gathers enterprises and organisations from across Europe, both public and private, at national, regional and local
level, which are public employers or providers of services of general interest. CEEP represents more than 500 000
enterprises employing more than 64 million people and contributing directly to more than 26% of the EU GDP.