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EU grapples with translation boom
BBC News
Making sure delegations
from European Union member states understand each
other when they meet in Brussels is no easy feat.
It is up to the European
Commission's Directorate-General for Interpretation
to make sure communication at meetings and conferences
is smooth.
That was particularly challenging
after 10 new member countries joined the EU in
May this year, adding nine new official languages
to the EU's existing 11.
For the Directorate-General
of Interpretation that involved more than a decade
of preparation.
The problem was that professionally-trained
interpreters in many of the candidate countries
were few and far between.
It was up to the directorate-general
- which every day provides between 700 and 800
interpreters for 60 meetings - to develop a pool
of skilled people from which to recruit.
"You have to take
into account that in post-communist countries
like Latvia, interpretation was not a profession,"
says Ieva Zauberga, one of the newest recruits
to the Commission's team of interpreters.
"The profession started
developing only after 1991 because it was a closed
world, you didn't need to communicate with foreigners,
and you had to build it all from scratch."
The directorate-general
had to lobby applicant countries to invest in
training interpreters, a cost the Commission does
not cover.
That was not always easy.
Often, delegations sent by candidate countries
to negotiate in Brussels in the run-up to their
EU membership would speak fluent English or French
and would not understand the need for interpreters.
Tony Scott, head of department
at the directorate-general, had to convince them
otherwise.
"I usually try to
find a particular product or something which is
very important to them, and where they will have
serious financial interests to defend. One case
I've used a couple of times is olive oil, "
he says.
"So I put it to them:
'You're an olive oil producer, you'll have to
represent your olive oil interests at these meetings,
do you want to do that in a foreign language?'
And they usually say, 'Oh no, you're right'."
Still, even today the Commission
does not have enough staff to cover all of the
languages, particularly some of the rarer combinations
involving Maltese or Slovenian.
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