Today, EBC participated to the first Stakeholder forum meeting of the EU Observatory of Payments in Commercial Transactions, in short EU Payments Observatory, upon invitation of the European Commission.
This initiative of the Commission, steered by DG Grow and the EISMEA Agency, aims at delivering transparency on payment discipline at EU level. The Observatory will monitor payment performance in the EU, both in the public and private sectors and across industrial ecosystems. It will collect, analyse and validate data; provide an overview of developments in payment behaviour across the EU, through an annual and thematic reports; and provide a repository of relevant initiatives and policy documents.
This first session was dedicated to present the objectives and timeline of the Observatory, notably starting with the identification of relevant and reliable data sources. Additionally, the Observatory will collect and classify documents and information on policy measures and relevant initiatives combating late payment, before a final step of analysis and dissemination of the collected data and information through reports and events.
A website and newsletter are foreseen to be launched in the coming months, as well as public informative events in the form of webinars along the year.
The members of the Stakeholder forum will be consulted for the next 2 years to provide advice and critical feedback throughout all the key stages and progress of the tasks, but also later to monitor the implementation of the under revision Late Payment Directive (LPD). Currently, the Commission is working on its impact assessment, building on the responses received to the recent public consultation.
As part of its monitoring of the LPD revision, EBC brings the point of view of SMEs in the construction sector, a sector where late payment has a particular impact on small enterprises leading to serious cash flow problems and bankruptcies, in a context where these same construction SMEs are key to, among others, the Renovation Wave.
 | To read the EBC position paper on the revision of the Late Payment Directive, click here. |