European Parliament's plenary sessions now in Maltese

For the first time since Malta joined the EU in May 2004, Maltese MEPs, assistants and visitors alike will have the chance to follow entire plenary sessions of the European Parliament in their mother tongue.

This has become possible after the addition of four interpreters to the Maltese language pool at the European Parliament.

It was not possible, until yesterday, to have all the plenary sessions translated into Maltese. Due to the lack of interpreters, only the speeches by MEPs were translated.

Now that the first four Maltese students have completed a professional degree interpretation course in London, the shortage has became less pronounced and the European Parliament is now offering full Maltese language interpretation services during plenary sessions in Brussels and Strasbourg.

In the case of other official languages, there is also full interpretation during committee and political group meetings. But this is still not possible in Maltese due to a lack of personnel. The situation is expected to improve as more Maltese train as professional interpreters.

There are, as yet, only 12 Maltese language interpreters able to do the job required by the three main EU institutions.