Spain

The European Mediation Directive has not been transposed in Spain yet.

A Bill on Mediation in Civil and Commercial Matters has been drawn up but has now come to a halt due to the calling of a general election to be held on November 20th.

The Bill establishes:

• a general scheme applicable not only to cross-border disputes but to those domestic mediations that take place in accordance with the requisites of the Bill
• mediation as a pre-requisite to commencing court proceedings in claims up to 6.000,00 €
• mediation agreements to be enforceable
• suspension of limitation period by mediation
• settlement agreement to end further litigation on the same issues
• judges empowered to invite parties to go to mediation.

Pilot-tests of court-annexed programmes on civil and commercial mediation have been already set in place, but there are no statistics available yet.