- ASCAME’s Arbitration and Mediation Working Commission is setting in motion the creation of a Mediterranean Mediation and Arbitration Centre.
- With this goal in mind, the Commission has created a new experts committee presided by Mr Jordi Domingo, Head of the Consulate of the Sea in Barcelona, on behalf of ASCAME.
From now on, the Working Commission on Arbitration will be chaired by the Barcelona Chamber of Commerce (with the leadership of Mr Domingo) and will be composed by a committee of selected advisors: the Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture of Beirut and Mount-Lebanon (with Mr. Rayan Kouatly), the Piraeus Chamber of Commerce & Industry in Greece (with Mr Dimitrios Lemonakis), the Istanbul Chamber of Commerce (with Mrs. Senem Bahcekapili Vincenzi), the Chambre de Commerce d’Industrie et de Services de la région Tanger Tétouan Al Hoceima (with Mr Maouhib El Kassimi) and the Alexandria Chamber of Commerce in Egypt.
Arbitration: a key tool for socio-economic development
Commercial disputes are increasingly solved by mediation and arbitration rather than by legal procedures. In this context, the Mediterranean Mediation and Arbitration Centre, with its rules, will hold a crucial role, as it will contribute positively to the resolution of the disputes between Mediterranean companies and with companies outside the region.
Mr Anwar Zibaoui, General Coordinator of ASCAME, highlights that the Mediterranean Mediation and Arbitration Centre will not constitute a challenger to the national and regional centres of arbitration; on the contrary, it will have a cohesive role. In this sense, the Mediterranean Mediation and Arbitration Centre aims to establish the cooperation and coordination between all the national centres of mediation and arbitration in the area.
To do so, the Mediterranean Centre will work with top experts of the area; it will advise and assist the national centres; and it will organise conferences, seminars, symposiums and colloquiums on a regional and international scale for the development of mediation and arbitration in the Mediterranean region. Moreover, the centre will write draft-agreements and prepare a “charter of Ethical Rules” for the arbitrators, through the close collaboration with regional and international centres of arbitration and experts.
The final goal is to foster the commercial exchanges between the two rims of the Mediterranean and to create a legal security climate for the region. Therefore, the Centre will provide reliable information regarding the present situation of national arbitration centres in all the countries that are members of ASCAME. It will also look into possible gaps or missing services that could eventually be provided by regional arbitration centres in each country.
All in all, the Mediterranean Mediation and Arbitration Centre will be a key instrument for successful coordination of North-South business activities and to promote three levels of cooperation: development aid cooperation, business cooperation through fairs and missions, and regional cooperation, with the different arbitration centres acting as interlocutors with multilateral organisations.