The largest and most respected center for mediation of disputes in Europe, the Centre de Médiation et d’Arbitrage de Paris (CMAP), will establish a unit in Rio de Janeiro in the second half of 2015, in partnership with the France-Brazil Chamber of Commerce. It will be the first mediation center opened by the CMAP outside of Europe. The president of the new Center for Mediation will be Carlos Roberto Siqueira Castro, senior partner of Siqueira Castro - Advogados and a director of the France-Brazil Chamber of Commerce.

The establishment of the new mediation center is timely, coming closely on the heels of enactment of the new Civil Procedure Code, which finally established mediation as a recognized form of dispute resolution. Now the chambers for mediation and conciliation and their rules on confidentiality are regulated by Brazilian law, favoring the use of this type of service by national firms and foreign companies with dealings in Brazil, enabling faster and less costly resolution of conflicts.

The regulation of this alternative dispute resolution mechanism will generate a new type of demand, requiring greater professionalization of chambers and their mediators. In this context, the Center for Mediation of the France-Brazil Chamber of Commerce will unite the international experience in Europe of the CMAP with the local expertise of Brazilian legal and technical practitioners. The agreement that created the new Center for Mediation was signed in Paris on June 10th, by the president of the France-Brazil Chamber of Commerce, Claudine Bichara de Oliveira, Carlos Roberto Siqueira Castro, officer of the France-Brazil Chamber of Commerce and future president of the Center for Mediation, and Sophie Henry, General Delegate of the CMAP.