Brussels, 30/03/2007 (Agence Europe) - MEPs backed a draft directive on 29 March in the plenary session which aims to encourage the use of mediation as a fast and economical method for resolving cross-border civil and commercial disputes. In adopting, at the first reading, the report by Arlene McCarthy (PES, UK), the Parliament is establishing mediation as a beacon method for resolving disputes out of court. This directive is part of the extension of the conclusions of the Tampere European Council of 15-16 October 1999, which called for out-of-court replacement procedures to be put in place in order to improve citizens' access to justice. The text aims to promote the use of mediation throughout the EU, although an opt-out clause will mean that this legislation does not apply in Denmark. The report explains that the use of mediation should always be voluntary even if it is, in certain cases, recommended by a court. In any event, a European citizen who chooses a mediation procedure to resolve a dispute would then not be precluded from recourse to an ordinary court. In order to guarantee that any agreement reached between the parties in a mediation procedure is enforced, the report specifies that it must be applicable in all the member states. MEPs also adopted an amendment on confidentiality to ensure that neither the mediators nor the parties involved in the procedure can divulge any information regarding the mediation. In spite of these provisions, the proposal still falls short of the initial ambitions contained in the 2002 green paper on the same subject. By way of an example, the quality of the mediation, to which the proposal devotes an article, rests entirely on the use of non-binding instruments: the member states are in effect only invited to “encourage” the drawing up of codes of conduct and to “promote” the initial and continued training of mediators; no harmonised regulations are envisaged on the subject. (bc)