The Hindu : International : Lost for words

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Sep 20, 2004

International

International

Lost for words

LONDON: Europe's ability to speak with one voice suffered a new setback last week after politicians attending debates at the European Parliament found long silences in their headsets. They were told that officials had failed to recruit enough interpreters to enable the enlarged E.U. to understand itself. Worse, it seems there simply may not be enough qualified linguists among the Union's 455 million citizens to fill the translators' booths in Strasbourg and Brussels. Patrick Twidle, responsible for recruiting interpreters at Parliament, said despite a massive recruitment campaign and monthly salaries starting at £2,500 he had failed to fill 400 positions. In the wake of the Union's enlargement from 15 to 25 members on May 1, the Commission pledged that the number of official languages would increase from 11 to 20. But fewer than 200 new interpreters have been found for Strasbourg. The Council of Europe and the European Commission are in the same predicament. Worst off are civil servants and politicians from the Czech Republic, Lithuania and Slovenia. Jaromir Kohlicek, a Czech Euro MP, is unable to address the parliamentary commission on transport and tourism, of which he is a member: "The documents we receive ahead of meetings generally contain only one page in Czech — the agenda. Everything else takes place in English or German.' — Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004

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