THE controversy over the lack of interpretation and translation services for the Maltese language at the European Parliament is set to take another twist as the parliament's general secretary, Julian Priestley, commented that there is nothing one can really do about the situation until more Maltese are trained as professional interpreters and translators.
Speaking to The Sunday Times following complaints by Maltese MEPs, Mr Priestley passed the buck onto the Maltese authorities. He said that "under the principle of subsidiarity it is incumbent on the Maltese authorities to ensure that a sufficient number of qualified translators and interpreters are trained for Malta's needs as a member state of the Union".
He added: "Unfortunately, despite efforts by the three institutions (Commission, Council and Parliament) to establish training courses for interpreters, in particular, it has not been possible to train enough people. The result is that there are only eight Maltese interpreters on the joint EU list, i.e. for all the EU institutions, of whom three are currently unavailable."
Mr Priestley complained also about the situation of translation services. He told The Sunday Times: "We have only five members of staff; this number may increase to eight by next spring. This means that capacity is currently equivalent to about one seventh of that of the unit translating into the 'old' languages. "In the absence of successful candidates from competitions, we will endeavor to recruit temporary staff, but there first needs to be an increase in the labour market."
The EP's general secretary said that despite these restrictions, it is still possible to translate Maltese original texts into all other languages, even if the capacity to do so with very short deadlines is limited.
Mr Priestley said that the institutions are doing their part to ease the problem. However he implied that this is not being reciprocated. He said that "Parliament has awarded substantial grants (payment of tuition fees plus subsistence bursaries) to send nine Maltese students to the UK to study for the European Master's in Conference Interpreting. Three students have since left the course." He said that in these circumstances "our margin for manoeuvre is thus rather limited".
Mr Priestley's reaction was sought by The Sunday Times following complaints by the Maltese MEPs at the European Parliament. Only last week, Dr Simon Busuttil (Nationalist/EPP) protested officially about the lack of Maltese interpretation facilities during his speech at the plenary session in Brussels.
Dr Busuttil started his speech by registering his strong protest over the lack of interpretation facilities in the Maltese language. He said that "these shortcomings are causing unnecessary inconvenience to Maltese members of the house". He said that this is not acceptable as Maltese is an official language of the EU and parliament should rectify the matter as soon as possible.
This was the first time that this issue was mentioned officially during a formal parliamentary session. However Maltese MEPs had already protested before.
Following the plenary session held in Strasbourg last September, four Maltese MEPs from both parties sent a letter of protest to Mr Priestley. They complained about the lack of services being given in the Maltese language and appealed to him to take the necessary steps to fix the situation.
In the letter, Joseph Muscat, Louis Grech, David Casa and Dr Busuttil complained that during the September session there was no interpretation of the parliament speeches in Maltese while the parliamentary staff was unable to guarantee interpretation services to those MEPs who wished to speak in Maltese. The MEPs said that this obviously caused a lot of problems to the Maltese MEPs in preparing their speeches.
Mr Priestley told The Sunday Times that he had not yet answered the letter, promising that "it would be answered in the very near future". He said that however the Parliament's aim is to at least guarantee a passive cover in plenary sittings. That will enable Maltese MEPs to deliver their speeches in Maltese.
The next Parliamentary session is due this week.