CZECH INTERPRETERS WITHIN THE EUROPEAN INSTITUTIONS

Five years following its accession to the EU, the Czech Republic is chairing the European Council for the first six months of 2009. How often is Czech heard in Brussels? How is the presidency being assessed by Czech delegates, chairs of working parties and various meetings and, in particular, by interpreters in terms of arrangements for interpreting from and into Czech? Specific data and other relevant information were obtained through various questionnaires which had been distributed between February and September 2009 to delegates, Czech conference interpreters and interpreters from other booths who work from Czech as a passive foreign language into their mother tongue or who rely on relay or on their Czech colleagues' retour. Based on detailed analysis and statistical processing of the replies, we then tried to answer a number of questions. What is the quality of interpreting at EU meetings in general? What is the quality of retour interpreting from Czech? What is the quality of relay (into an A language and into a B language)? How are interpreters rated, both by delegates and by their interpreter colleagues? And how do interpreters assess delegates' speeches and interventions at meetings? Our goal is to arrive at general conclusions and present specific recommendations in order to provide both interpreters and delegates with a better understanding of each other's needs, with a view to promoting a fruitful and friendly environment for meetings where participants use interpreting services.