EN ECB-PUBLIC  
 
 
OPINION OF THE EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK 
of 18 June 2012  
on prevention of late payments  
(CON/2012/47) 
 
Introduction and legal basis 
On 24 May 2012, the European Central Bank (ECB) received a request from the Slovenian Ministry of 
Finance for an opinion on a draft law on prevention of late payments and on 12 June 2012 the ECB 
received an amended version of the draft law from the c onsulting authority (hereinafter the ‘draft law’).  
The ECB’s competence to deliver an  opinion is based on Articles 127(4) and 282(5) of the Treaty on the 
Functioning of the European Union and the third indent  of Article 2(1) of Council Decision 98/415/EC of 
29 June 1998 on the consultation of the European Ce ntral Bank by national authorities regarding draft 
legislative provisions1, as the draft law relates to Banka Slovenije . In accordance with the first sentence of 
Article 17.5 of the Rules of Procedure of the Eur opean Central Bank, the Governing Council has adopted 
this opinion. 
 1.  Purpose of the draft law 
1.1 The draft law regulates measures to prevent late payments as part of the Government’s efforts to 
improve economic and business conditions for sm all and medium size enterprises. The ECB 
understands the draft law is in tended to replace the Law on prevention of late payments
2 which was 
subject to previous ECB consultations3. 
1.2 The draft law defines payment periods and the duty to register money obligations for mandatory 
multilateral netting applicable to contracts conc luded between economic operators or between 
economic operators and public authorities, where one party provides goods or services and the other party fulfils a money obligation. The draft law does not apply where insolvency proceedings have been initiated against a debtor pursuan t to the law governing insolvency proceedings
4.  
1.3 To accelerate repayment of debts and to prot ect creditors, the draft law introduces a document 
(‘izvršnica’ ) through which a debtor undertakes to pay the amount stated in it. It is deemed to 
contain: (a) the debtor’s irrevocable authorisation to the creditor to order the execution of a 
                                                 
1  OJ L 189, 3.7.1998, p. 42. 
2  Official Gazette of the Re public of Slovenia No 18/11. 
3  See Opinions CON/2011/25 and CON/2011/61. All ECB Opinions are published on the ECB’s website at 
www.ecb.europa.eu. 
4  See Article 3 of the draft law. 
ECB-PUBLIC  
2 payment transaction by debiting the debtor’s funds with the debtor’s payment services provider; 
and (b) the debtor’s irrevocable consent to al l its payment services providers to execute the 
payment transaction ordered by the creditor by debiting the debtor’s funds5.  
1.4 The draft law is also intended to transpose Directive 2011/7/EC of 16 February 2011 on combating 
late payment in commercial transactions6 as regards defining payment periods and the moment of 
late payment7 into the Slovenian legal order.  
1.5 In accordance with Article 1(2) of Decision 98/ 415/EC, the ECB is not providing its opinion on the 
transposition of Directive 2011/7/EC and it limits it s views to the impact of the draft law on Banka 
Slovenije. 
 2. Independence of Banka Slovenije 
Application of the draft law to Banka Slovenije’s contractual relations 
2.1 The draft law applies to public authorities, which include Banka Slovenije
8 as regards its 
contractual relations in the area of administration, in particular. Article 5 of the draft law clarifies 
that the draft law does not apply to Banka Slovenije  when it acts within the scope of its exclusive 
competences in accordance with the law governing Banka Slovenije  or any other laws or European 
Union regulations laying down exclusive competen ces of Banka Slovenije and the competences of 
Banka Slovenije as an integral part of the European System of Central Banks (ESCB). The ECB welcomes this clarification as it ensures that the dr aft law does not interfere with the tasks of the 
ESCB and the Eurosystem carried out by Banka Slovenije in accordance w ith the Treaty and the 
Statute of the European System of Central Banks and of the European Central Bank (hereinafter the 
‘Statute of the ESCB’), in particular the implem entation of the monetary policy of the Union. As 
recommended in the ECB’s previous opinions
9, for the sake of clarity, the draft law could be 
further improved by making an add itional reference to Banka Sloven ije’s competences as part of 
the Eurosystem.  
Supervision of the implementation of the draft law 
2.2 Article 55 of the draft law defines which national authorities10 supervise the implementation of 
Articles 31 and 35 of the draft law11 and initiate minor criminal offences proceedings for related 
breaches of the draft law. Under the draft law, Banka Slovenije is also subject  to this supervision. 
As emphasised in previous ECB opinions12, in order to fully respect central bank independence, it 
                                                 
5  See Part VI of the draft law (Articles 39 to 53) for more details. 
6  OJ L 48, 23.2.2011, p. 1. 
7  See Part II of the draft law (A rticles 10 to 13) for more details. 
8  See Article 6 of the draft law. 
9  See paragraph 3.1 in Opinion CON/2011/25 and paragraph 3.1 in Opinion CON/2011/61. 
10  The Customs Authority of the Republic of  Slovenia, the Tax Admini stration of the Republic of Slovenia and the Market 
Inspectorate of the Republic of Slovenia. 
11  I.e. the obligation to register money obligations in a multilateral netting system and the mandatory registration of money 
obligations from bills of exchange for multilateral netting. 
12  See paragraph 3.3 in Opinion CON/2011/25 and paragraph 3.2.2 in Opinion CON/2011/61. 
ECB-PUBLIC  
3 should be made clear that any supervision of Banka Slovenije’s complia nce with the draft law 
should observe its status as an independent central  bank as granted by the Treaty and the Statute of 
the ESCB.  
 This opinion will be published on the ECB’s website.   Done at Frankfurt am Main, 18 June 2012. 
 
[signed] 
 
The President of the ECB 
Mario DRAGHI