Following a recent address by MEP Cyrus Engerer, wherein he addressed his inability to speak in his native language due to Maltese being exempt from having interpreters at the European Parliament, we reached out to sources within the European Parliament services.
Sources within the services of the European Parliament said that whilst a request for an Estonian interpreter was made prior to the press-conference, MEP Engerer did not make such request to be provided with a Maltese interpreter. “If MEP Engerer had made the request, a Maltese interpreter would have been made available,” our sources said.
MaltaDaily reached out to the office of the President of the European Parliament and asked whether initiatives were taken to address the annual derogation on Maltese interpretation in some meetings of the European Parliament. A spokesperson from the President of the European Parlament’s office sent MaltaDaily a letter which Roberta Metsola had sent to Prime Minister Robert Abela back in February of this year, to address an issue that has been present for around 20 years.
In the letter, which was reportedly ignored, Metsola urges for collaboration between the European Parliament and the Government of Malta to address the issue of a lack of interpreters.
‘MEPs should have the right to have access to documents in all official languages’, Metsola wrote, ‘in the same way that they have the right to speak in their official language through the interpretation of 23 other official languages.’
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‘To facilitate this multilingual communication, the Parliament administration depends on the specialised services of people trained in linguistics which, in the case of Maltese, is always becoming more difficult to find.’
As a remedy for the lack of linguists, the letter explains, the European Parliament has a cooperation program with the University of Malta which provides assistance with the aim of training interpreters for conferences. Due to several constraints, the EP can only provide interpretation of Maltese in limited circumstances.
‘This issue is dear to my heart and I felt the need to say that the European Parliament is ready to do everything to address these issues,’ stated President Metsola.
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