According to the Law on Mediation, mediation is any type of arbitration, regardless of the term, concerning dispute resolution through a mediation procedure where the parties to the dispute are provided with an option to resolve it through negotiation, in a peaceful manner, with the assistance of one or multiple licensed mediations, with the aim of achieving mutually acceptable solution in the form of written agreement.

The principles and standards of mediation, which render it more attractive than other methods of alternative dispute resolution or the courts, play a major role in dispute resolution, especially in resolving economic disputes. The principles of mediation are the voluntary nature of mediation, equality of parties, impartiality and neutrality of the mediator, confidentiality, privacy i.e. exclusion of the public, no access to information about the mediation procedure, procedure efficiency i.e. inexpensiveness, efficiency and expediency, and fairness of the procedure. According to the Law on Mediation of the Republic of Macedonia (“Official Gazette of the Republic of Macedonia” no. 188/13, 148/15, 192/15 and 55/16), mediation is especially employed in proprietary, family, labor, trade, consumer and insurance disputes, disputes in the area of education, environmental protection, disputes related to discrimination, as well as other disputes where mediation is suitable to the nature of the dispute and could assist in its resolution. The provisions of the Law on Mediation apply in criminal disputes, provided their application is not excluded with a special legislation.

By adopting the Law on changing and amending the Law on contentious procedure (“Official Gazette of the Republic of Macedonia” no. 124/15) with Article 47 of the Law, a change of Article 461 of the consolidated text of the Law was made that reads as follows: “In the commercial disputes for financial claim the value of which does not surpass the amount of 1,000,000 denars, and upon which a lawsuit in front of a court is initiated, the parties are obliged, before submitting the lawsuit, to try and solve the dispute through mediation. When submitting the lawsuit, the plaintiff is due to show evidence given by a mediator that the attempt to solve the dispute through mediation failed. The lawsuit that does not have attached evidence to it, as stated in Article (2) of this Article, will be rejected”. This provision of the Law on contentious procedure entered into force in February 2016.

According to the new Law on mediation and its changes and amendments (“Official Gazette of the Republic of Macedonia” no. 188/13, 148/15 and 55/16), the mediation procedures can be inclusively conducted by a mediator to whom a license for performing mediation works pursuant Article 46 of the Law on mediation, by the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Macedonia- Board of providing, following and assessment of the quality of the work in mediation.  The mediation performs the function pursuant to the Law on contentious procedure and the above stated legal provision, as well as the implementation of the procedures for solving all types of disputes that can be subject to mediation for which the parties will be willing to settle the dispute through mediation. 

The business dynamics, the trend of intensive reduction of the costs, increase of the efficiency, technological benefits with possibility of immediate transfer of information, mobility in all parts of living, impose the need of surpassing the traditional conduct of court procedures and to look for new ways for efficient settlement of the disputes and conflicts by initiating procedures with efficient dispute-settlement modes, such as mediation.

The Economic Chamber of Macedonia supports mediation with the main objective to popularize this efficient mode of out-of-the-court dispute settlement. With the popularization of the mediation the unnecessary long and expensive court procedures will reduce and the efficiency of surpassing the conflicts in the parties’ stance will be increased by finding solutions acceptable for both parties and for their future cooperation because of the trustworthiness of the procedure, which is not the case in the larger part of the disputes subject to public court proceedings.

Hence, the needs of the companies, the Economic Chamber of Macedonia, as the biggest and the most numerous business association in the Republic of Macedonia, starts to create and offer a new service in its portfolio of activities, i.e. it introduces support for  offering Mediation both for the members and non-members, pursuant to the above stated provisions.