Mediation in Greece

Mediation in Greece is regulated by Law No. 4640/2019. Among its main provisions, the above-mentioned Law establishes the range of cases in which a dispute may be referred to mediation, namely:

• when the parties agree to such referral after the dispute has arisen;
• when the court has invited the parties to resort to mediation and the parties have accepted this proposal;
• when mediation has been ordered by a judicial or other competent authority of another EU Member State and the referral to mediation does not violate the principle of boni mores or public order;
• where recourse to mediation is provided for by law;
• when the dispute arises from a contract concluded between the parties that contains a mediation clause.

The general requirement of the Law regarding the referral of a dispute to mediation is that the parties must have the right to freely dispose of the subject matter of the dispute.
Furthermore, the above-mentioned Law expressly provides for the principle of confidentiality of the mediation process, which is binding on any participant in the process, provided that they are included in the document relating to the submission of the specific dispute to mediation; the voluntary nature of the mediation process; the right of any party to leave the mediation without any consequences and without any obligation to announce their decision to leave the process; the non-adjudicative nature of mediation; the neutrality of the mediator; the mediator’s right to hold private meetings with each party separately, with or without the participation of his or her lawyer; the obligation of the parties to be personally present during mediation, with certain exceptions, for example in cases of illness or inability to travel to another place; and the obligation of the parties to use the assistance of their legal counsel, an attorney, in order to be aware of the most important general provisions of the Law governing mediation. The agreement to refer a dispute to mediation must be in writing.

Article 214B of the Greek Code of Civil Procedure provides for mediation conducted by judges after a relevant application by any interested party, either before or after the filing of a claim concerning a private-law dispute. The application may be submitted both at first instance and at second instance. Each court of first instance and court of appeal appoints one or more judges to conduct mediation at the request of any party to the dispute, as mentioned above. Their term of office is two years and may be extended for one further year. In addition, as another option, the court may at any stage of the proceedings invite the participants in the court proceedings to resort to mediation. The participants may either accept or refuse such a proposal. If they accept it, the court adjourns the case for no more than six months.

Law No. 4640/2019 introduced a mandatory first mediation meeting in certain types of cases:

• family disputes, except for matters governed by mandatory provisions of law, such as divorce, adoption, and similar matters;
• disputes falling within the jurisdiction of the single-member court of first instance, provided that the value of the subject matter of the dispute exceeds thirty thousand EUR 30,000.00;
• cases falling within the jurisdiction of the multi-member court of first instance.

According to Article 8 of Law No. 4640/2019, which regulates mediation, an agreement reached as a result of the mediation process becomes binding when any party to the dispute, or that party’s attorney, files it with the secretariat of the court before which judicial proceedings concerning the dispute have already been initiated, or with the secretariat of the court that would have subject-matter competence and territorial jurisdiction if mediation failed and either party initiated court proceedings.

In order for the agreement to become binding, it must include provisions on enforcement. Where the agreement contains arrangements that must be in the form of a notarial deed, these conditions must be fulfilled for the agreement to be fully enforceable. The party filing the agreement with the court secretariat, as stated above, must pay a state fee of EUR 50.
An agreement reached in the mediation process may be used for the registration or cancellation of a mortgage.

There are several provisions of Law No. 4640/2019 that require further elaboration and/or amendment. Here we will mention one of those that we consider among the most important, namely the mediation clause, which does not have proper effectiveness. In fact, the Law provides that an agreement between the parties to resort to mediation must contain a description of the relevant dispute. However, where there is a mediation clause providing that any dispute arising from the interpretation or performance of the contract or agreement containing that clause shall be referred to mediation, at the time such a clause is agreed upon, the range of possible disputes is unknown and therefore cannot be specified. As a result, it is considered that even where a mediation clause exists, the parties must repeat in writing their consent to refer their dispute or disputes to mediation after such dispute or disputes have arisen. This may obviously remove any benefit of such a mediation clause, unless the courts interpret this requirement — which is a requirement dictated by the interpretation of the Law rather than arising from the text of the Law itself — as excessive and recognize, contrary to how they currently recognize it, that a mediation clause should be observed.