MEDA – January 2005 / January 2008

Promotion of International Commercial Arbitration and other Alternative Dispute Resolution Techniques in the MEDA Region

(Project web page http://www.adrmeda.org/)

Background

ADR Center was responsible for organizing and implementing this project in all 10 MEDA countries. For the purposes of this project, the countries involved were grouped into three sub-regions:

Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia
Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and West Bank & Gaza
Israel and Turkey

This project also served to reinforce business networks which already existed at the sub-regional and regional levels on both sides of the Mediterranean. Lastly, a longer-term objective was to prepare the main stakeholder groups (the judiciary, lawyers’ associations and business associations) to cooperate in the future on new projects on these issues.

Objectives

ADR Center focused on promoting awareness, acceptance and use of international arbitration and other forms of ADR in the MEDA Countries, with special reference to SMEs, to forestall and to resolve international commercial disputes arising from:

business transactions between MEDA and EU-based companies;
business transactions between companies based in two or more MEDA Countries;
disputes arising from foreign investment.

Technical assistance was focused on the following main areas: provision of specialized training; preparation of relevant documentation; information dissemination and networking.

ADR Center also sought to encourage the creation of new Arbitration/ADR centers, as well as to strengthen existing Centers in each country, through the “twinning” of EU Arbitration/ADR Centers with existing MEDA counterpart institutions.

ADR Center, as leader of a consortium which also included several other participants, took overall responsibility for:

dissemination of information on dispute settlement techniques,
training of specialists,
technical assistance,
development of regionally specific procedures, and
protocols and dissemination of contractual instruments.

Key Activities:

Seminars for Judges, Lawyers, and Business Executives: These intensive seminars were conducted by international commercial dispute resolution experts, who introduced the concepts of “best practices” in each area of concern. These trainings also developed local skills, by collaborating with local country experts recruited in each of the ten MEDA countries. Participants were members of the judiciary, corporate counsel, and private practitioners, as well as SME managers and representatives.

Institutional Technical Assistance and Individual Capacity Building: The project focused on technical assistance to local dispute resolution institutions. A major effort was undertaken through “Action Plans” to define development and sustainability strategies, including joint projects for the future. Over the same period, introductory trainings in arbitration and mediation were offered in each of the 10 MEDA countries, to initiate and build a corps of trained arbitrators and mediators.

Rome Conference: ADR Center hosted an international conference in Rome on 28th-29th September 2007 to announce and discuss the results of the project. The conference highlighted the improving consensus amongst countries on both sides of the Mediterranean regarding the more regular use of conflict prevention mechanisms, and it demonstrated the benefits of utilizing uniform contractual instruments. For further information: www.adrmeda.org/romeconference07

MEDA/Europe ADR Survey: This ambitious survey targeted firms, particularly SMEs, in 37 EU and MEDA countries. It included elements typically involved in surveys conducted according to rigorous standards, including a cross-sectional sample of the target population, a translation of the survey instrument into English, French and Arabic, and a detailed final report.

Partner of MEDAL

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