The standoff between interpreters and the administration of the European Parliament continues, with neither side willing to budge. This situation is set to last as interpreters have now extended their strike warning until Friday 14 September (see EUROPE 12044).
The interpreters consider that being requisitioned or summoned back to duty (30% of the personnel) by Parliament's administration in recent weeks is excessive and that there was no prior consultation. They say such requisitions intrude on the right to strike and are discriminatory towards certain languages and certain MEPs in so far as they focus on five languages in particular (English, German, Spanish, French and Italian).
Parliament's administration believes that the complaints made by the interpreters will die down over the summer break and it is taking the measures it deems necessary so that the movement disrupts the work of the European institution as little as possible and is not too obvious from the outside.
Given this standoff, the interpreters, who will explain their action to the GUE/NGL group on Wednesday and Greens/EFA on Tuesday 3 July, call on the highest political level to bring the situation out of deadlock in order to reach an agreement on what is understood by the notion of minimum service. Such was the content of a letter sent by Parliament's inter-trade union committee to Parliament President Antonio Tajani, on Monday 25 June. It called on Tajani to “take control of the situation by clearly defining political priorities”.
It is therefore likely that the interpreters will once more be summoned back to duty for the July plenary session during which Austrian Chancellor Sabastian Kurz will take the floor, as well as Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)