7th March 2024
Minister of State for Trade Promotion, Digital and Company Regulation Dara Calleary T.D. joined his fellow Ministers with responsibility for the Internal Market and Industry at today’s meeting of the EU Competitiveness Council in Brussels.
The Commission was represented by the Internal Market Commissioner Breton. The Belgian Presidency was represented by Mr David Clarinval, Belgian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Small Businesses, the Self Employed, SMEs and Agriculture, Institutional Reform and Democratic Renewal, by Mr Jo Brouns, Flemish Minister for Economy, Innovation, Work, Social Economy and Agriculture and by Ms Valérie de Bue, Walloon Minister for the Civil Service, Information Technology, Administrative Simplification, in charge of Child Benefits, Tourism, Heritage and Road Safety.
Ministers discussed the proposal for the revision of the directive on combating late payments in commercial transactions. The proposal forms part of the ‘SME Relief Package’, a series of initiatives presented by the Commission on 12 September 2023 to address the main needs of small and medium-sized enterprises in the current economic environment.
Speaking at the meeting, Minister Calleary said:
“We can all agree on the importance of prompt payments for business. Liquidity and cashflow are essential elements of any business. Ireland fully supports public sector bodies leading the way in providing prompt payment of goods and services. Ireland already imposes a 15-calendar day payment period on our government departments and other public bodies and we are reviewing how we implement that to see how we can make improvements”.
Ministers also engaged in an exchange of views on the 2024 Annual Single Market and Competitiveness Report. During his intervention, Minister Calleary thanked the Commission for the report and said:
“I welcome the opportunity to discuss the report at today’s meeting as we need to establish a political commitment at all levels to ensure progress is made in addressing barriers to the functioning of the Single Market”.
ENDS
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