Official celebration of 120 years of arbitration activity in the system of BCCI

“The Court of Arbitration at the Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI) has a leading role in promoting the alternative methods for resolution of legal disputes and establishing traditions in this respect”, said the Minister of Justice Tsetska Tsacheva at a conference dedicated to 120 years of arbitration activity in the system of BCCI and 65 years since the establishment of the Court of Arbitration at BCCI.

In front of the participants in the event, organized by BCCI, she emphasized the efforts of the management of the Court of Arbitration to prepare qualified staff for its future activity. For more than 12 years the Court of Arbitration at BCCI has been holding annual trainings of law graduates on arbitration issues and for 4 years has been organizing competitions for law students in the field of international commercial arbitration.

In the words of Minister Tsatcheva, over the years the Court of Arbitration at BCCI has remained the institution whose practice enjoys the highest authority among the representatives of the business and the legal community.

“The Court of Arbitration at BCCI has successfully adapted to the socio-economic changes that have occurred since 1989, both in the context of improving and supplementing the legal framework, the rules of arbitration process, and with regard to introducing modern technologies by digitalizing the administration of arbitration cases”, the Minister of Justice added.

“120 years are a very serious anniversary. I personally have been working at the BCCI for 38 years and have been in touch with arbitration, which has always enjoyed special authority. It is no coincidence that the arbitration was established only 2 years after the establishment of Sofia Chamber of Commerce and Industry,” the President of the Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry Tsvetan Simeonov said in his welcoming speech to the participants. According to him, during all these years, the arbitration has gone through the ups and downs of the country and the economy, but it has resisted the storms of time and the team of the Court of Arbitration has been keeping the arbitration traditions alive. “The Court of Arbitration at BCCI continues to be the leader in arbitration proceedings, it is fully digitalized and has set such an example that all Chambers of Commerce in Southeastern Europe have been sending representatives of their arbitration secretariats to learn from its experience, including in the field of its digitalization”, Tsvetan Simeonov concluded.

The President of the Court of Arbitration at BCCI Blagovest Punev, the Honorary President Prof. Dr. Silvi Chernev and the Deputy President Alexander Katsarski also addressed the participants in the conference.

Among the foreign guests of the event were the President of Vienna International Arbitral Centre, the Presidents of the Courts of Arbitration at the Chambers of Commerce of Serbia, Ukraine and Estonia, and the Deputy President of the International Court of Arbitration at the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) – Paris.

During the conference with international participation, the main aspects and the development of the legal framework and the practice of arbitration were discussed as an alternative to the slower, more expensive and more conservative procedure in the state courts.