8.8.2000 Official Journal of the European Communities L 200/35 DIRECTIVE 2000/35/EC OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 29 June 2000 on combating late payment in commercial transactions THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION, Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, and in particular Article 95 thereof, Having regard to the proposal from the Commission ('), Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and Social Committee (%), Acting in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 251 of the Treaty (*), in the light of the joint text approved by the Conciliation Committee on 4 May 2000, Whereas: (1) In its resolution on the integrated programme in favour of SMEs and the craft sector (*), the European Parliament urged the Commission to submit proposals to deal with the problem of late payment. (2 On 12 May 1995 the Commission adopted a recom- mendation on payment periods in commercial transac- tions (°). (3)  In its resolution on the Commission recommendation on payment periods in commercial transactions (°), the European Parliament called on the Commission to consider transforming its recommendation into a proposal for a Council directive to be submitted as soon as possible. (4 On 29 May 1997 the Economic and Social Committee adopted an opinion on the Commission's Green Paper on Public procurement in the European Union: Exploring the way forward (). (5)  On 4 June 1997 the Commission published an action plan for the single market, which underlined that late payment represents an increasingly serious obstacle for the success of the single market. (6)  On 17 July 1997 the Commission published a report on late payments in commercial transactions (%), summar- ising the results of an evaluation of the effects of the Commission's recommendation of 12 May 1995. (") O] C 168, 3.6.1998, p. 13, andOJ C 374, 3.12.1998, p. 4. () O] C 407, 28.12.1998, p. 50. (*) Opinion of the European Parliament of 17 September 1998 (O] C 313, 12.10.1998, p. 142), Council Common Position of 29 July 1999 (O] C 284, 6.10.1999, p. 1) and decision of the European Parliament of 16 December 1999 (not yet published in the Official Journal). Decision of the European Parliament of 15 June 2000 and Decision of the Council of 18 May 2000. 4 O] C 323, 21.11.1994, p. 19. ] L 127, 10.6.1995, p. 19. ] C 211, 22.7.1996, p. 43. ] C 287, 22.9.1997, p. 92. ] C 216, 17.7.1997, p. 10. ) (10) (11) (12) (13) (14) Heavy administrative and financial burdens are placed on businesses, particularly small and medium-sized ones, as a result of excessive payment periods and late payment. Moreover, these problems are a major cause of insolvencies threatening the survival of businesses and result in numerous job losses. In some Member States contractual payment periods differ significantly from the Community average. The differences between payment rules and practices in the Member States constitute an obstacle to the proper functioning of the internal market. This has the effect of considerably limiting commercial transactions between Member States. This is in contra- diction with Article 14 of the Treaty as entrepreneurs should be able to trade throughout the internal market under conditions which ensure that transborder opera- tions do not entail greater risks than domestic sales. Distortions of competition would ensue if substantially different rules applied to domestic and transborder operations. The most recent statistics indicate that there has been, at best, no improvement in late payments in many Member States since the adoption of the recommenda- tion of 12 May 1995. The objective of combating late payments in the internal market cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States acting individually and can, therefore, be better achieved by the Community. This Directive does not go beyond what is necessary to achieve that objective. This Directive complies therefore, in its entirety, with the requirements of the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality as laid down in Article 5 of the Treaty. This Directive should be limited to payments made as remuneration for commercial transactions and does not regulate transactions with consumers, interest in connec- tion with other payments, e.g. payments under the laws on cheques and bills of exchange, payments made as compensation for damages including payments from insurance companies. The fact that the liberal professions are covered by this Directive does not mean that Member States have to treat them as undertakings or merchants for purposes not covered by this Directive.