The Sofia News Agency reported yesterday that Bulgarian minister of justice Anton Stankov has just approved standards for mediators and the practice of mediation in Bulgaria. In addition, a public register of approved mediators has been created. Although the mediator practice standards are not available online at this time, click here for a link to the Rules Pertaining to the Unified Mediators Register.

For readers interested in learning more about mediation in Bulgaria, there is available at the web site for the Academy of European Law a paper presented at a March 2005 conference on family law and divorce mediation which describes the status of mediation there and examines the challenges that the promotion of mediation within Bulgaria has faced. Possibilities and Limits of Family Mediation: The Case of Bulgaria was written by Velina Todorova, Ph.D., a professor at the University of Plovdiv.