Initiated and held by the European Arbitration Chamber, the Forum has become the first event in the area of international arbitration organized by an international organization in the post-soviet territory.

More than 150 lawyers and international arbitrators from 13 countries including USA, EU, CIS, Middle Asia and Far East participated in the Forum. The event was supported by such world-known organizations - UN agencies as UNKTAD and UNCITRAL as well as an arbitration institution of high authority - The Chartered Institute of Arbitration (London, UK). The organizers of the Forum received greeting letters from the ambassador of Belgium - Marc Vinck, the Minister of Justice of Ukraine - Mykola Onischuk. The importance of holding of the First International Arbitration Forum in the territory of Ukraine was repeatedly emphasized by the Head of the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine Olexandr Melnichenko in his speech. Volodymyr Kampo, a justice of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, emphasized the importance of the mission of the European Arbitration Chamber in the development of the system of alternative methods of dispute resolution in Ukraine and other post-soviet countries. "We should understand that system of ADR (Alternative Dispute Resolution) in Ukraine is directly dependant on the rate of reforms' development in the state Court system" - said Volodymyr Kampo in his speech.

The president of the European Arbitration Chamber Gennadiy Pampukha has noted that the Arbitration Forum is planned to be annuall in different post-soviet countries and countries of Eastern Europe.

The UNKTAD (Geneva) representative Chitra Radhakishun has made a special stress on the necessity to unify educational programs in the field of international arbitration. She also told about the educational modules elaborated by experts from UNKTAD.

The work of the Forum was divided into several thematic sections encompassing important facets of functioning of the system of international arbitration.

From the perspective of a practicing lawyer the representative of the general sponsor of the Forum, a partner of the Legal Group "Pavlenko and Poberezhnyuk" Olexandra Pavlenko pointed to the factors influencing corect choice of the arbitration. An expert of the European Commission and a practicing arbitrator ICAC in EAC Grace Avigdor and counsel of the legal firm "Spencer and Kauffman" Olexandr Bondar made a range of valuable recommendations to all participants of the Forum regarding representation of client's interests in arbitration.

The participants of the Forum also exchanged their experience in development of ADR in different countries of Europe. The keenest interest of the participants has been aroused by the report of Varlam Badzagua about positive experience of arbitration's development in Georgia. An attorney at law, practicing international arbitrator and retired state judge Richard Marcinkowski told about specifics of developing arbitration in the Republic of Poland.

A great interest of all participants of the event has been revolved around the issues of recognition and enforcement of arbitral awards in the countries of EU and CIS, procedural peculiarities of considering disputes in different arbitration institutions such as ICC, LCIA, CEPANI, ICAC in EAC. There have been broached a narrower topics of, for instance, arbitration clauses (Julia Chernykh, a lawyer of LF "Astapov Lawyers"), choice of venue of arbitration (a partner of the Ukrainian office of LF "Baker McKensie" Svitlana Romanova), rules of drafting arbitration agreements ( Artem Vilkov, LF "ANK"), comparative analysis of mediation and arbitration (Maina Breeze, USA and Olexandr Bondar, counsel of the legal firm "Spencer and Kauffman" ).

Johan Billiet, the president of the Association of Arbitrators of Belgium, arbitrator of ICAC in EAC made an interesting report on the subject of development of international arbitration practice in the field of energy related contracts and broached interesting precedents from European and Russian court practice.

A heated discussion of participant of the Forum revolved around the issue of discrepancies in different systems of law such as Common law and Civil law as well as the impact of such discrepancies on the development of arbitration. The dispute has been initiated by the reports of the head of European department of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators - Axel Reeg, the managing partner of LF "Principum" Sergey Kovaliov (Moscow, Russia), a member of the European arbitration Chamber, arbitrator of ICAC in EAC (Paris, France) Benoit Le Bars, a partner of LF "Stepanovsky, Papakul and partners"(Minsk, Belarus) Alexandr Stepanovsky.  

Some consideration was also given to the peculiarities of the development of national and international arbitrations in Ukraine and negative trends of legislative regulation in the field. Negative feedback was given by representatives from Switzerland, Belgium, France (ICC) regarding novelties in the field of arbitration courts in Ukraine. In particular, Mr. Bertrand, an arbitrator from ICC, stressed on the necessity to improve the legal climate in the field of regulating the activity of arbitrations in Ukraine. 

All participants of the Forum noted the high level of organization of the event and supported the initiative made by the European Arbitration Chamber.

The European Arbitration Chamber is grateful to all speakers and participants of the Forum as well as to all informational sponsors and partners:

- Legal Group "Pavlenko nad Poberezhnyuk" represented by the managing partner Olexandra Pavlenko

- The National Collegium of Advocates represented by Oleg Palamarchuk

- Legal company "ANK" represented by Mr. Kifak and Mr. Volkov

- Consulting Company "Sidkon" represented by Mr. Kogut