In the Macedonian Chambers of Commerce (MCC), the first Mediation Center was opened, following the example of the European and the world countries, where within the chambers there are Centers for Mediation in order to promote the principle of access to justice for all, and the fulfillment of international standards, was stressed at today’s press conference of the Union.
The Center will regularly hold lectures, presentations, workshops and trainings for representatives of the business community, who will want to apply mediation as a procedure in resolving the dispute.
The President of the Chamber of Mediators, Slave Mladenovski, said that the first Mediation Center in Skopje is the official place where the mediator will introduce the representatives of the public and private sector, as well as the citizens with the mediation.
“In cooperation with the Chamber, in addition to the municipalities, we will open a total of 5 Mediation Centers in the Skopje, Southwest, East and Northwest region. Centers are expected to be basic cells through which citizens will be informed about the advantages of mediation in court proceedings, rules on how mediation is conducted and the basic advantages it gives to parties that have decided to resolve the dispute in this way. Through the establishment of the centers we want to help the managers of companies, managers of public institutions in culture, education, health, public administration, to manifest effective and efficient management of conflicts between their employees and users of their services, clients and business partners ” said Mladenovski and added that in the centers as lecturers, mediators from the country and abroad will be engaged, then university professors working in the field of mediation, businessmen o have had personal experience and foster mediation as a procedure, as well as other prominent figures from different fields, such as journalists, sociologists, psychologists, lawyers and civic activists.
The Vice President of the Chamber, Aleksandar Miloshevski, pointed out that Macedonian Chambers of Commerce has implemented a number of activities in the function of improving and facilitating the work of the companies.
“Mediation can be applied to property law litigation, trade, labor, consumer, insurance, disputes in the field of education, environmental protection, discrimination. The Union is comprised of companies from 8 regional chambers, more precisely from the whole country, in this direction, mediators living in a particular region will be engaged to devote time to getting to know and informing all interested persons about mediation. In a word, we want to make mediation, apart from central level through the Center for Mediation in the Chamber, available at the local level, which will mean additional saving of time, resources and resources for the companies that act locally, “Miloshevski said and added that direct contact between mediators and interested business entities for mediation, positive examples of the use of mediation will increase the level of use in resolving disputes versus lengthy litigation.
Mediation in certain cases, It is legally required before filing a lawsuit in court. Thus, in commercial disputes for a monetary claim whose value does not exceed 1.000.000 denars, the parties are obliged before the filing of the lawsuit to try to resolve the dispute by means of mediation. The Chamber of Mediators considers that there is an opportunity to expand the number of areas where mediation should be mandatory, such as in consumer and insurance disputes.
The Chamber of Mediators was established in 2017, in accordance with the Mediation Law, within which the Ministry of Justice, as a competent body, entrusts public authorizations for the purpose of organizing and advocating mediators. The Chambers of Mediators are members of only licensed mediators and as a result of their work and activities the Chamber has significantly increased the number of resolved mediation cases.
