European Court of Auditors about EU's interpretation costs

European Court of Auditors releases Special Report No. 5/2005 about interpretation expenditure

Recently the European court of auditors presented a report about the interpretation costs incurred by the European Council, the Commission and the Parliament revealing interesting results.

With the so far last enlargement and changes in the status of languages (Walsh) by January 2006 21 European languages will have the status of official and working languages of the European institutions. Due to the nature of their activities the Parliament, the Commission and the Council require the largest volume of interpretation services. The General Directorate for Interpretation of the Commission (GD Interpretation) is responsible for the interpretation needs of the Council and the Commission. The Parliament has its own interpretation service.

The European Court of Auditors was to find out if the interpretation services were managed economically or if they exceeded the needs, if the institutions possessed adequate instruments and techniques and if the interpretation services were provided at the lowest possible costs but were of high quality.

The European Court of Auditors' report reveals that the overall quality of interpretation services in most cases corresponds to the users' needs and expectations, further measures are, however, necessary to further decrease the costs of the service.

The detailed report, which is available at www.eca.eu.int, showed that the reduction of costs for interpretation services for the Council, the Commission and the Parliament could exceeded expectations - even if absolute costs will rise due to the increased demand after the enlargement.

Due to the introduction of active and passive languages "on demand" it was possible to harmonise the language combinations with the special requirements of the individual institutions and meetings, thus reducing the number of interpretation day by almost seven percent compared to 1998.

European institutions employ permanent interpreters (civil servants) as well as so called ACI - auxiliary conference interpreters, their payment being justified:

"The daily fee paid by the European institutions in 2004 at a fixed rate of 483,98 euro per day for experienced interpreters is in line with current market conditions in the private sector. However, it is lower than the gross average rate paid by other international organisations, which have also signed Conventions with the IACI. The much higher volume of employment and the longer contracts that the E.U. institutions are able to offer, as well as the favourable tax treatment (ACIs pay a community tax and are as a consequence exonerated from national income taxes) explain the difference. The effect of the favourable tax treatment is that, in spite of a lower gross rate, the net amount received by the freelance interpreter from DG Interpretation and the Parliament is higher than the net amount earned by working for the private sector or for other international organisations. This means that the E.U. institutions can afford to apply high standards in recruiting ACIs, but also have to carefully observe the market conditions in order to avoid overpaying their ACIs."

Problems, however, are posed by the different regulations concerning the deduction of travel costs with regard to freelance interpreters (ACI) and permanent interpreters and the sometimes disproportionate willingness of EU institutions to pay for unnecessary or excessive travel costs. According to the report, pre-tax costs and indirect costs for ACI at the Parliament are 15% higher than those for permanent interpreters. (The costs for ACI at the Directorate General for Interpretation are, however, 14% lower.)

The European Court of Auditors' report concludes that the number of interpreters available for the new official languages remains too low. The European Court of Auditors furthermore recommends equal conditions for ACI and permanent interpreters.

Sources: EU press release (pdf)