Interpreters' course hitch raised in Brussels

Labour MEP Joseph Muscat has informed the European Commission that a course for conference interpreters at the University of Malta may not open in the next academic year because a tender to supply equipment has not been awarded yet.

The Times reported yesterday that the two-year post-graduate diploma course for Maltese interpreters, for which the European Union has allocated €150,000, was still "stuck in the local bureaucratic machine".

Joseph Eynaud, director, said the course would not open next October if the equipment was not installed by next month. Prof. Eynaud also said that Malta, which had a shortage of interpreters in Brussels and Strasbourg, risked losing the EU funds for setting up the course because EU funds had to be used within specific timeframes.

Following the story, Mr Muscat decided to inform the European Commission in writing, asking what action would the Commission take considering there was a lack of Maltese interpreters at the EU institutions and that the EU had allocated funds for the setting up of an interpreters' course.

"I am greatly concerned with what Prof. Eynaud said regarding the local bureaucratic problems that are hindering the commencement of the interpretation course," Mr Muscat said.