WRITTEN QUESTION E-3446/02

by Olivier Dupuis (NI) to the Council

(6 December 2002)

Subject: EU-Russia summit

At the last EU-Russia summit held in Brussels on 11 November last the Council did not, as is usual, use its own interpreters to translate from Russian into the Community languages what was said by the visitors, namely the President and delegation from the Russian Federation. Strangely, interpretation from and into Russian was provided by the visitors' interpreters. Furthermore, at the press conference held at the end of the summit, President Putin addressed blatantly racist, offensive and even threatening remarks to an EU journalist, saying if you want to become an Islamic radical and have yourself circumcised, I invite you to come to Moscow. We have a multi-denominational country and there are specialists in this field too. I would recommend that the surgeon ensures that you'll have nothing growing back afterwards. None of this was translated by the Russian interpreters and was not made public in Europe until after it was reported by the Russian media.

Since, according to an established tradition of diplomacy in both the Member States and the Union institutions, interpretation into the language or languages of the host country or institution is provided by its own staff, a fortiori at meetings as important as this one, what induced the Council to infringe this sacrosanct and sound rule governing international relations? Furthermore, has the Council made an official complaint to the Russian authorities and the International Association of Conference Interpreters (AIIC) asking them to condemn this blatant violation of ethical rules by the Russian interpreters, in particular the rule according to which interpreters should translate what is said in its entirety? Finally, what conclusions does the Council draw regarding the racist, offensive and even threatening nature of the remarks made by the President of the Russian Federation at the press conference in Brussels on 11 November last?

Reply

(5 and 6 May 2003)

The Council would point out to the Honourable Member that the EU-Russia Summit was held within the Council premises in exceptional circumstances, the Presidency having made a late switch of the event from Copenhagen to Brussels.

With regard to interpretation, the practice followed by the Council at Council meetings is for simultaneous interpretation to be assured solely by interpreters from the Joint Interpreting and Conference Service (SCIC) in order to guarantee quality. This practice is normally followed by respective Presidencies for the organisation of high level meetings, such as bilateral summits between the EU and third countries. However, this is not a sacrosanct rule and, in exceptional circumstances, the Presidency has on occasion accepted, after consulting SCIC, that simultaneous interpretation into an other language be provided by the visiting delegation.

At the recent EU-Russia summit, simultaneous interpretation into Russian was provided by SCIC's interpreters and the Russian delegation provided interpretation into English at the request of President Putin.

The same interpreters accordingly provided simultaneous interpreting of President Putin's statement at the press conference which concluded the Summit. As far as the standard of interpretation during the summit is concerned, the Council has made no complaint either to the Russian authorities or the International Association of Conference Interpreters.

It is, however, not the policy of the Council to comment on statements to the press made by visiting Heads of State.