Chapter IIa: Mediation

Without prejudice to existing mediation mechanisms, the municipalities, departments, regions and public establishments of inter-municipal cooperation with their own tax status may, by deliberation of the deliberative body, set up a territorial mediator, subject to the provisions of this article.

The deliberation setting up the territorial mediator shall define the scope of his/her powers, determine the resources made available to him/her to carry out his/her duties and set his/her term of office. The resolution appointing the Territorial Mediator shall define the scope of his powers, determine the resources made available to him for the performance of his duties and set the duration of his term of office.

The Territorial Mediator may not be appointed by a decision of the deliberating body. The following may not be appointed as Mediator of the French Territory by a territorial authority or a public establishment for inter-communal cooperation with its own tax system:

2° A person who holds an elected public office or is an agent within one of the groupings of which this local authority or this establishment is a member;

Mediations conducted by the territorial mediator are subject to the provisions of Section 1 of Chapter III of Title I of Book II of the Code of Administrative Justice. Referral to the local mediator interrupts the time limits for contentious appeals and suspends the statute of limitations under the conditions laid down in article L. 213-6 of the Code of Administrative Justice.

By way of derogation from article L. 411-2 of the code of relations between the public and the administration, when, in application of the seventh paragraph of this article, the time limit for appealing to the courts has been interrupted by the organisation of mediation, the lodging of an appeal in the first or second instance does not interrupt it again, unless this appeal constitutes a compulsory prerequisite for lodging an appeal to the courts. The local ombudsman is free to define the procedures for the mediation process that he/she conducts.

Referral to the territorial mediator is free of charge.

A dispute may not be referred to the local mediator once it has been brought before a court or has been the subject of a final judgement, except in the cases provided for by law.

The local mediator reports annually to the local court. Each year, the territorial mediator submits an activity report to the decision-making body of the local authority or public establishment for inter-municipal cooperation with its own tax system that appointed him/her and to the Défenseur des droits, drawn up in compliance with the principle of confidentiality of mediation. This report may contain proposals for improving the operation of the territorial authority or the public establishment for inter-municipal cooperation with its own tax status.

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