The administration of the European Parliament is to requisition up to one third of its interpreters to ensure the best possible functioning of the meetings of the parliamentary committees and inter-institutional negotiating sessions to take place this week.
The representatives of the interpreters, who will explain the reasons for their social movement before the committee on employment and social affairs on Tuesday 19 June (see EUROPE 12042), are challenging the terms under which these requisitions are being carried out.
In particular, the strikers consider that they should have been carried out in consultation with the unions. They have also criticised the discriminatory nature of these requisitions, which appear to focus on six languages (English, French, German, Italian, Spanish and Polish), in order to make the work stoppages as invisible as possible.
However, the interpreters argued that this decision is discriminatory against the MEPs, who are entitled, under the rules of Parliament, to speak in their own languages.
The strikers, who are now not expected to carry out work stoppages this week, are hoping to achieve significant results before the summer break. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)