28 June 2010 the second meeting of an expert group in terms of the Joint Program between the Council of Europe and the European Union “Transparency and Efficiency of Judicial System of Ukraine” took place.

To take their part in the meeting there were experts from the Council of Europe, the program advisers, the Kyiv Bureau staff of the Council of Europe, Chairmen of Courts of pilot projects, the representatives of the Centers of mediation, public offices, institutions and others.

During the meeting the following issues have been discussed:

• the next steps of the mediation procedure implementation in 5 pilot courts of Ukraine;
• schedule of the future events in terms of the project;
• carrying out a week of mediation in Ukraine from 5 to 9 of July 2010;
• a conference plan, appointed on the last day of the mediation week – Friday, 9 of July 2010;
• setting up an Association of Mediators (what is required for its establishing) etc.

The cases of the pilot courts which are supposed to conduct the mediation will be monitored on the issue of the positive influence of the judicial mediation on the solving disputes in the courts of Ukraine. The experts of the Council of Europe highlight the project monitoring, as without the monitoring results, the necessary useful information for the Ministry of Justice and the ministers for framing their future policy on mediation issues won’t be gained. Thus, the pilot courts’ data collection and their cooperation with external research institutes become the first priority.