WRITTEN QUESTION E-2571/00 by Robert Goebbels (PSE) to the Commission. Delays in Commission payments.
Date: 2000-08-01
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: European Community, administrative formalities, claim, deadline for payment, management, operation of the Institutions, private sector, simplification of formalities

8.5.2001

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 136 E/51

Nevertheless, the Commission wants to see where Korea(cid:146)s goodwill gestures lead and expects the Koreans
to come up with practical solutions at the second consultation meeting planned for the second fortnight
in September. The Commission will report the outcome of the consultations to the Council at the end
of September. Parliament will obviously be kept informed.

The European industry recently announced that if the results of the consultations were not considered
satisfactory it would immediately lodge a complaint under the Trade Barriers Regulation (TBR) (1). If the
bilateral dialogue fails, this procedure could lead to World Trade Organisation (WTO) action to penalise
the Korean use of subsidies and dumping, and to remedy the situation.

(1) Council Regulation (EC) No 3286/94 of 22 December 1994 laying down Community procedures in the field of the
common commercial policy in order to ensure the exercise of the Community(cid:146)s rights under international trade
rules, in particular those established under the auspices of the World Trade Organisation (OJ L 349, 31.12.1994).

(2001/C 136 E/057)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2571/00

by Robert Goebbels (PSE) to the Commission

(1 August 2000)

Subject: Delays in Commission payments

The European Parliament has now given its final agreement to the late payments directive. That directive
will require the private and public sectors to make payments within a time-limit of 30 days, after which
penalty interest will be payable.

Does the Commission not consider it necessary to adopt without delay the principles which it has
successfully proposed for the Member States?

A large number of complaints have been received from private firms, some of which have been awaiting
payment for services provided to the European Union in general, and the Commission in particular, for
several months.

The multiplication of checks and the bureaucracy involved have exacerbated the delays in the Commis-
sion(cid:146)s payments considerably. This applies to all Community programmes (PHARE, TACIS, JOP, ECIP,
JEV, etc.), and some of the firms concerned have had to undergo repeated checks but have still not
received payment from the Commission services pursuant to the funding agreements signed.

(cid:145)Obsessive(cid:146) checks are being carried out, and many senior officials are clearly refusing to shoulder their
responsibility, preferring to cover themselves by repeatedly requesting information, additional justification,
external audits and all the other bureaucratic inventions used as an (cid:145)umbrella(cid:146) to protect the administration.

This atrocious situation has become a nightmare for many private firms working with Commission
services.

Should the Commission not apply the principles which it is seeking to impose on the private sector to its
own services, particularly with regard to administrative simplification, action to combat late payments and
the proper treatment of all files?

Answer given by Ms Schreyer on behalf of the Commission

(31 October 2000)

Directive 2000/35/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 29 June 2000 on combating late
payment in commercial transactions (1) provides that interest is to become payable from the day following
the date or the end of the period for payment fixed in the contract. If the date or period for payment is
not fixed in the contract, interest is to become payable automatically, without the necessity of a reminder,
30 days following the date of receipt by the debtor of the invoice or an equivalent request for payment.

C 136 E/52

Official Journal of the European Communities

EN

8.5.2001

The Directive also stipulates that the creditor is to be entitled to interest for late payment to the extent that
he has fulfilled his contractual and legal obligations and has not received the amount due on time, unless
the debtor is not responsible for the delay.

The Commission has been applying these rules to its own transactions since the second half of 1997,
when it decided to insert in its contracts a clause formally requiring that payment be made with 60 days
and providing that the creditor may demand interest on late payment once the 60-day deadline has passed.

The Commission is, however, aware of the problems posed by the length of time which it itself takes to
make payment. In July 2000 it drew up a number of guidelines for its departments, in line with the
objectives set in the White Paper on Reform (2). The speeding up of payments is seen as one way of
fostering a service-oriented culture within the Commission.

Some of these guidelines are concerned with simplifying the checks on contractors(cid:146) performance. They
recommend, for example, that the time allowed for the approval of reports be limited, that the technical
annexes to contracts (setting out what contractors are to deliver to the Commission at each stage of a
project) be drawn up with precision and be verifiable by both parties, that the financial clauses be
simplified and that fewer supporting documents be required for payment requests under contracts based
wholly or partly on procedures for the reimbursement of costs, by setting standard amounts for certain
categories of expenditure such as travel expenses.

The Commission must nevertheless verify whether the payments it makes are fully justified and must
therefore check all the payment requests which it receives.

(1) OJ L 200, 8.8.2000.
(2) COM(2000) 200 final.

(2001/C 136 E/058)

WRITTEN QUESTION P-2581/00

by Mihail Papayannakis (GUE/NGL) to the Commission

Subject: Agreement on international humane trapping standards

(25 July 2000)

An agreement on international humane trapping standards was signed by the European Community
in December 1997. In order to implement these standards in Member States properly it has long been
accepted that the Commission will have to draw up a legal instrument. Will the Commission explain why
such a legal instrument has not yet been published and when can it be expected? Could it also give an
assurance that, in view of the strong criticism of this Agreement by the European Parliament and animal
welfare organisations, it will use the opportunity afforded by the legal instrument to introduce standards
which are more exacting than those set out in the Agreement?

Answer given by Mr Lamy on behalf of the Commission

(19 September 2000)

implementation of the agreement on international humane trapping standards will require
The full
considerable work by all parties. In order to prepare the ground for introducing appropriate implementing
measures, an independent study was carried out for the Commission on trapping in the Member States.
This provides details about the current levels of trapping activity, trapping techniques and research, and
trapping legislation. The final results of this study have recently become available to the Commission. On
the basis of this work, the Commission is now considering the content and format of the implementing
legislation.

In this context, the Commission does not envisage going further than is required under the agreement. The
agreement is the result of lengthy and intense negotiations with the Community(cid:146)s international partners.
To seek now to go beyond what was agreed during those negotiations would represent bad faith on the
part of the Community and might prejudice the operation of the agreement as a whole. Moreover, there is
a provision in the agreement for future up-dating of trapping standards in the light of current research
work into humane trapping and animal welfare.