Presenting the bill to the MPs, Justice Minister Oleg Slizhevsky noted that the bill was drafted to implement the United Nations Convention on International Settlement Agreements Resulting from Mediation. "The convention was signed by Belarus in August 2019. It is important as it consolidates the international legal mechanism for the recognition and execution of international mediation agreements. The business entities that have resolved a dispute using the mediation procedure will be able to enforce a settlement agreement in any state - party to the convention," he said.
The bill provides for the amendments to the Economic Procedures Code, the Tax Code, the law on mediation to incorporate the rules allowing to recognize and execute international mediation agreements.
“We believe that the status of Belarus as the initial signatory of the convention, as one of the first states to recognize it as binding and the country that has committed to introducing relevant amendment to the national legislation will contribute to the country's image as a state advocating the improvement of international regulation in international trade,” Oleg Slizhevsky said.
For Belarus, the convention will come into force on 15 January 2021. Irina Lukanskaya, a member of the Standing Commission on Legislation of the House of Representatives, noted that the main goal of the convention is to promote harmonious international economic relations, using mediation as a way to resolve international commercial dispute and to guarantee the possibility of enforcing settlement agreements reached through mediation.
"In order to incorporate in the national legislation the subject matter of the international settlement agreement, the grounds for recognition of international settlement agreements and grounds for refusal to enforce them, we are adjusting the Economic Procedures Code. We are also amending the taxation on income derived from a settlement agreement in order to formalize the issues of collecting the state fee for review of an application to issue a document to enforce an international settlement agreement,” Irina Lukanskaya said.
In addition, the mediation law is supplemented with the provisions defining an international settlement agreement and the provisions governing the order of recognition and enforcement of international settlement agreements. “It is also supplemented with a provision defining a separate settlement unit of a legal entity,” Irina Lukanskaya said.
