Commission refers Italy to CJEU over Late Payment Directive

Further information:

The Commission acknowledged the efforts made by the Italian government to improve the situation since the launch of the infringement procedure with a letter of formal notice in June 2014 and the subsequent reasoned opinion sent in February 2017.

However, more than three years after the launch of the infringement procedure, the Italian public authorities still took on average 100 days to settle their invoices, with peaks which can considerably exceed this figure.

Background information:

According to the Late Payment Directive, public authorities have to pay for the goods and services they procure within 30 days or, in very exceptional circumstances, within 60 days of receiving the bill.

The European Commission decided on 7 December 2017 to refer Italy to the Court of Justice of the European Union due to systematic payments delay by the Italian public authorities in commercial transactions, thus breaching EU' Late Payment Directive (Directive 2011/7/EU).