The European Union’s motto “Unity in Diversity” is the demonstration of the
enduring vision of Europe’s different languages and different cultures as a
priceless asset. Ensuring that this diversity is not a barrier to understanding is the
task of 10% of the European Commission staff, comprising roughly three quarters
translators, one quarter interpreters. I shall of course be concentrating on the latter.
Danica Seleskovitch very pertinently pointed out that the chain of
communication does not stop in the booth. We in the European Commission’s
Directorate-general for Interpretation have long taken this to heart, both literally
and figuratively. Literally, in the sense that the ultimate destination of the
message is of course the customer: I will present some key findings of our latest
Customer Satisfaction Survey which has just been finalised. Figuratively, because
the looming shortage of good young conference interpreters coming into the
profession threatens that the message may only reach an empty booth for some
languages.
Within those two over-arching themes, there are of course other important
interwoven issues which I would like to tease out for your consideration.
