On 16-17 of May 2017 a group of over 60 EP trainees, including 6 trainees from TermCoord, spent 2 days getting acquainted with the work of the European Parliament in Strasbourg.
Regularly organised by the Training and Traineeships Unit, the Strasbourg visit gives European Parliament trainees from Luxembourg a unique opportunity to attend plenary sessions and debates, meet MEPs and learn about the daily work of those who enable this vast institution to function in all 24 EU languages.
The programme started with an informative and insightful talk on interpretation given by Hana Liisa Tamm (DG INTE). The Estonian interpreter spoke about the demands and challenges of working in a fast-paced multilingual environment and the need to keep up to date with the political developments and publications in all the working languages mastered by each interpreter – and some of them cover as many as seven. She also explained the mechanisms of ‘retour’ and ‘relay’ languages, as well as the way interpreters do their preparation and interact with their team in the booth. Given that during debates speakers are often allocated as little as 1-2 minutes to make their point, many of them tend to write down their speech and then deliver it at breakneck speed – amazingly, the interpreters manage to keep up most of the time!
After the presentation we were taken to the public gallery of the impressive Hemicycle which can seat all 751 Members of the European Parliament. During plenary sessions it is used for Parliament’s largest and most important debates, providing the setting for many historic votes. The plenary sessions are interpreted into all 24 official European Union languages. The debate that afternoon focused on Syria. We were surprised to see so many empty seats, but as an MEP explained to us the next day, the sittings are streamed to MEPs’ offices and can be followed in real time, with only the participating working group or committee members actually attending the session in person, while the others carry on with their tasks elsewhere.
The day finished with a free evening to explore the old picturesque centre of Strasbourg, and the cloudless sky and summery temperatures made us feel as if we were much further south…
Wednesday’s programme was packed: first a presentation by European Ombudsman’s office, followed by a visit to the Council of Europe. Then came the unexpected highlight of the trip: once again in the Hemicycle gallery, we were able to listen to the UN Secretary-General António Guterres addressing the European Parliament for the first time since succeeding Ban Ki-moon on 1 January 2017.
In his 30-minute speech Guterres expressed his gratitude and appreciation for the EU’s commitment to multilateralism and its contributions to development cooperation and humanitarian aid: “The European Union is clearly the most successful project of peace sustainability in the world since the beginning of history.” The UN Secretary-General addressed a number of issues, notably Syria, migration, globalisation and the need to preserve cultural diversity. “A strong and united Europe is an absolutely fundamental pillar of a strong and effective United Nations,” – was his message to the MEPs, virtually all of whom were present at this historic sitting.
The afternoon was taken up by 3 meetings: first, with Pavel Černoch (DG COMM) who shared his personal story of commitment to a united Europe and impressed the audience with his hands-on knowledge of European geography. The trainees were given an opportunity to contribute to the discussion with questions and reflections about European identity, the position of non-EU states such as Albania, and other topics. Then we met 2 MEPs, both of whom expressed their appreciation for the work done by translators and interpreters at EP. João Ferreira, Member of the European Parliament (Confederal Group of the European United Left – Nordic Green Left) engaged in a discussion of left-wing politics. Finally, we were joined by Seb Dance, Member of the European Parliament (Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament) who, after after answering questions from the audience, was also kind enough to appear in our group photo taken by an EP photographer at the end of the visit.
On behalf of all the trainees I would like to thank the organisers: Jorge Quaresma, Lucie Styrandova and Michaela Carbolova (EP Training and Traineeships Unit), as well as all the speakers and participants who made our Strasbourg visit such a memorable experience.
Written by Yelena Radley, Terminology Trainee at the Terminology Coordination Unit of the European Parliament, language teacher and sociolinguist