Interpreters - the facts

First of all, I would like to congratulate Joe Eynaud for his statements to The Times as published in the report Lack Of Booths May Stall Interpreters' Course" (June 1).

Perhaps, it would be useful to state the plain facts concerning interpreters for Maltese at the EU institutions, as follows:

Fact 1: When Malta reactivated its application to join the EU in 1998, all efforts to start training interpreters for Maltese were nipped in the bud since, it was repeatedly stated, it was too risky to embark on such a project when joining was still so uncertain and when having Maltese as an official EU language then was just a dream or possibly a negotiating tool to be eventually "sacrificed".

Fact 2: At the time (in 1998) there were no trained and/or experienced interpreters specifically for Maltese.

Fact 3: When Malta was admitted to the EU and Maltese became an EU official language in 2002, the EU accredited eight (in practice, only seven) qualified and/or experienced interpreters with Maltese as their mother tongue, but experienced mainly in other languages.

Fact 4: These seven qualified and/or experienced interpreters have been giving freelance services to all the EU institutions since November 2002 according to their availability. Because of their limited number and availability, they can only cover (and partially) the monthly European Parliament plenary sessions in Strasbourg, the EU summits in Brussels, some Committee of the Regions Meetings plus a few other sessions.

Fact 5: The EU offered to fund up to 10 scholarships for a year's post-graduate full-time training course in the UK. More than 100 applied but during an aptitude test, many refused to take up residence abroad for studying and eventually for a permanent job with the EU.

Two or three dropped out before the course actually started in October 2004, and four of the seven who attended the course managed to obtain their diploma in May 2005. These trained interpreters will be able to apply for a job as interpreters with the EU institutions when a competition for this purpose is announced.

Fact 6: When and if the newly trained interpreters take up their posts (perhaps as from next October), it may be possible to cover also the European Parliament monthly mini-plenary sessions in Brussels, as well as some more meetings but nothing much more.

Fact 7: The human resources to reach the full complement needed are beyond what is available today and in the foreseeable future. The interpreters' post-graduate course locally as from next October 2005 will ensure a slow but steady trickle of trained interpreters. Graduates will only take up such post-graduate studies if, on the one hand, they are willing to take a full-time contract abroad (usually in Brussels) and, on the other, they are assured of such a possibility after obtaining their diploma.

Fact 8: While demoralising and destructive criticism has been continually spread unfairly, Prof. Eynaud and a handful of others have been silently making determined efforts to remedy and improve the situation, in spite of all the bureaucratic and other hurdles.

Any criticism and/or decision which does not take into consideration these facts will be unfair or erroneous.