October 28 (SeeNews) - The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), supported by funding from the UK Government’s Good Governance Fund, will launch a technical cooperation programme in Serbia to strengthen the use of commercial mediation in disputes.
The programme will be directed at the legal and business community, trade organisations, the Serbian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Judicial Training Academy of Serbia, EBRD said in a notice on its website.
The project is part of the EBRD’s Investment Climate and Governance Initiative which aims to support reform-minded governments and its corporate clients to increase transparency, good governance and healthy competition in the countries where EBRD invests.
In 2014, Serbia adopted a new law on mediation. However the implementation is not yet complete and businesses still mostly rely on settling disputes in court rather than taking advantage of alternative dispute resolution mechanisms. This not only overloads the court system but increases time and costs to reach resolutions, EBRD said.
The UK government will support the project with 250,000 euro ($273,000) within the Good Governance Fund.
($= 0.9157 euro)