Portuguese transpose EU's Late Payments Directive:

In Portugal, where medical device manufacturers have frequently had to wait a crippling 300-400 days for payment of their supplies, the Late Payments Directive has at last been transposed into national law. This makes Portugal the 12th country to have done so. The European Commission is now putting pressure on the remaining three countries, Spain, Greece and Luxembourg, by sending out reasoned opinions on February 6 2003. This is the second stage of the Commission's infringement proceedings. The directive creates an automatic right to interest on many debts still outstanding 31 days after goods or services are supplied in a commercial transaction.