Portuguese public authorities' late payments to suppliers

12.10.2017

Question for written answer E-006420-17
to the Commission
Rule 130
José Manuel Fernandes (PPE)

Directive 2011/7/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 February 2011 on combating late payment in commercial transactions lays down that public authorities are to pay for goods and services they have acquired within 30 days, and that this time limit may be extended to 60 days in exceptional circumstances. Portugal is failing to comply with the legislation in this regard, with payments taking an average of 90 days. There are some instances of payments taking as much as 300 days. The Commission sent a formal notice to Portugal in April 2017 as the first step in infringement proceedings.

What is the scale of Portugal’s failure to comply in this regard, and what type of sanctions might Portugal incur as a result of its public authorities’ failure to comply with this European directive?

Bearing in mind that these rules were created to protect businesses, what social and economic consequences might the public authorities’ failure to comply with the rules have for Portuguese SMEs, whose operations are being hampered?

If payments are deferred from 2017 to 2018, what impact might this delay in paying suppliers have on the public accounts balance, particularly in terms of calculating the deficit?