Milan: Small suppliers across the single market keep financing their larger customers whether they want to or not, and a long-promised fix for late payment has once again slipped out of reach. Negotiators in the Council have hardened into a blocking group, leaving the reform stranded between a Parliament that wants firm deadlines and governments wary of the strain on their own treasuries.

The Commission built its 2023 proposal around a single, blunt rule: a 30-day ceiling on payments for business-to-business and government-to-business deals alike. The idea was to end the practice of dominant buyers stretching invoices to 90 or 120 days and turning their suppliers into unpaid lenders. The Commission sets out its own framing of the plan in its late payment guidance.

Parliament never accepted the rigid version. Its lawmakers backed a 30-day default but carved out room for companies to agree up to 60 days in writing, and up to 120 days for seasonal or slow-moving goods. The legislative train now lists the file as reassigned to a new rapporteur, a sign of how far it has drifted from the fast track.

Industry groups warn that the cure could bruise the patient. Credit insurers estimate that forcing shorter terms would open a financing gap approaching two trillion euros, because suppliers who currently wait for payment would suddenly need cash to bridge the gap themselves. Firms trading outside the bloc also fear losing ground to rivals who can still offer generous terms.

Governments have their own reasons to hesitate. Public bodies rank among the slowest payers in several member states, and a hard 30-day rule would land squarely on stretched national and regional budgets. That self-interest, more than any grand principle, explains why the Council’s general approach kept flexibility for specific sectors and why a durable majority has proven so hard to assemble.

The human cost sits behind the numbers. A builder in Lombardy or a software shop in the Baltics that waits four months to be paid cannot hire, invest, or absorb a bad quarter. Late settlement remains one of the most common triggers of insolvency for small firms, and every delay in the law prolongs the squeeze.

For now the reform survives on procedure rather than momentum. Officials still talk of finding a landing zone that pairs a tighter default with escape hatches for genuine seasonal trade. Whether the next presidency turns that talk into a deal, or whether the file quietly ages on the shelf, will decide if Europe’s smallest companies finally stop bankrolling everyone else.