In Spanish, Catalan, Galician and Basque: this is how the Congress of Deputies will sound starting this Tuesday. The headset to listen to the simultaneous translation They will become another working tool in the hemicycle, as is already the case in other countries with multilingual parliaments such as Switzerland, Belgium or Canada.
Spain is still finalizing the details. In the absence of final approval in plenary, the Council has already agreed to reform the regulations, while nationalists and separatists demanded to support the nomination of the president of the chamber, the socialist Francina Armengol. At present, it is known that the translators already working in the Senate will be used and that the headsets purchased for the intervention of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will also be used. There is still six months to fully launch the systembut the estimated budget for the plenary sessions on Tuesday and Thursday this week is around 30,000 euros.
But how are they organized in other countries and what does the use of different languages mean for their parliamentarians and citizens?
This is how official languages work in the European Union
Switzerland: “will” for coexistence and understanding
“In Switzerland, it is obvious that everyone can express themselves in their mother tongue, whether within Parliament or outside the hemicycle,” Antonio Suárez, member of the Swiss Council, told RTVE.es. administration of Parliament. Swiss Association of Translation, Terminology and Interpretation (ASTTI).
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As the translator details, at the National Council, equivalent of our Congress of Deputies, they work three interpreters for each of the three official languages of the Swiss Confederation (German, French and Italian), German being the most translated language, being spoken by more than 60% of the population.
In Switzerland, all official state communications are published in the three languages, while the “co-official” status of the Romansh language is recognized. The latter, the use of which is guaranteed in relations with citizens belonging to its linguistic community and is recognized as official in the canton of Graubünden, has not yet fully entered Parliament.
The interpretation service began in the mid-20th century, although Italian, spoken by around 8% of Swiss citizens, was not introduced until 2000, according to the establishment’s website. “Over time, the staff of interpreters grew stronger and Italian acquired greater importance, placing it hierarchically on an equal footing with German and French,” explains Suárez.
All individual votes and all relevant interventions of the 200 deputies are translated from the soundproof rooms of the National Council, although it must be taken into account that the Swiss Parliament meets only four times a year for three weeksto which are added the meetings of parliamentary committees three other times a year.
Furthermore, there is no interpretation service either in these commissions or in the Council of States, that is to say its upper house, comparable to our Senate since it is the seat of representation of the cantons. “It is understood that “Senators have sufficient linguistic knowledge to follow the debates”, explains Suárez. Regarding this “resignation” decided by their “lordships”, the translator explains: “on the one hand, politicians generally attach a lot of importance to controlling public spending; but, on the other hand, this is also due to the fact that Switzerland is a multilingual country in which learning a second national language is part of compulsory education.
Therefore, from a practical point of view, we can say that there is no linguistic “gap”, while, from an identity point of view, multilingualism is part of the national essence. Switzerland “considers itself as “the will of the nation”born from the determination of its inhabitants to form a cohesive society united in its diversity”, affirms the translator, who recognizes that it is “widely accepted” that two citizens from different linguistic regions maintain a conversation, each expressing themselves in their own native language., although certain “Germanic dialects can sometimes make communication difficult.”
Thus, its representatives also consider multilingualism as a commitment. “Switzerland (was born) from a common desire to share a common destiny. It is therefore It is the paramount duty of every member of the Federal Parliament to strive to understand the language, culture and mentality of others., wherever they come from. (…) This assumes that elected officials can transcend linguistic borders in a direct exchange”, responded 70 members of the National Council to a motion presented in 2007.
Belgium: territorial and linguistic division
Images of Belgian MPs listening to another MP’s simultaneous translation via an earpiece are also common. In the House of Representatives, as its lower house is called in Belgium, it can be used French, Dutch or German, although there are currently no German-speaking members among the total 150 seats and interpretation services in this language are therefore removed.
“There are six of us and, as the interpreters always work in pairs, we can only cover three committee meetings. This is clearly insufficient, especially on days when at least 15 or 20 meetings are called… This is why we use freelancers. interpreters, whose number varies from week to week”, the head of the department, Olivier Hendrick, describes to RTVE.es.
Unlike Switzerland, in Belgium all MPs’ interventions are translated simultaneously, “from a simple question in committee to a detailed speech in plenary”, Hendrick explains. To this end, the Chamber guarantees that interpreters are available “at any time, Monday to Sunday, 24 hours a day”, so that the translated version of any call can be offered.
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This is an example of the planning that will now have to be carried out in the Congress of Deputies. At the moment it has been created a bag of 12 approved translators, who will be convened as needed, parliamentary sources informed RTVE. Unlike the Belgian department, Spain initially chose to outsource the service rather than create a corps of chamber translators. In addition, they will not be in person at the Carrera de San Jerónimo Palace, but will receive audio and video in real time and will be able to translate the interventions from their workplace or home.
“It seems logical that, in an institution that represents the country, all the deputies who speak can express themselves in the language that best allows them to present their arguments. It is up to the interpreters to faithfully reproduce the message in the other language,” argues Hendrick, member of the professional association Belgian Chamber of Translators and Interpreters (CBTI-BKVT). But it is not just a matter of translating the exchange dialectic, in In Belgium, the official state bulletin (“Le Moniteur Belge”) is also bilingual Dutch-French.
Official languages are of great importance policy in the country. In 1962, what we call the “linguistic border” was established which divided the territory: to the north, the Dutch-speaking region; to the south, the French-speaking region; and in a small corner to the east, the German-speaking region. The first corresponds to Flanders and the second to Wallonia, although they are different administrative divisions. In Flanders, in fact, is the capital of the country, Brussels, the only territory considered bilingual French-Dutch.
This distribution is inevitably reflected in the composition of the Belgian Chamber and is part of the country’s history. The first interventions in Dutch in a Parliament controlled by the French-speaking elite are documented since the middle of the 19th century. Since then, multilingualism in the House has drawn complaints and jeers from both sides for decades, but it can be considered established after the end of World War II.
Canada: bicephaly dominated by the English
Canada is another paradigmatic example of a bilingual parliament. As it happens in Swiss And Belgiuma simple visit toto the establishment’s website allows any citizen to follow legislative sessions in one of the official languages, where applicable, English or French, since 2004.
Before, between 1977 and 1991, they were also offered via two television channels, and since 1969, the two languages have benefited from a Equal status for the Canadian government and federal institutions. However, these are not the only elements of its linguistic melting pot formed by the different indigenous languages and dialects, which less than 1% of the population recognizes as their mother tongue.
Recently, the province of Nova Scotia gave the Mi’kmaq first language status, with the aim of “supporting efforts to preserve and promote it today and for future generations”. In any case, English is de facto the main language of a region where there is also a Gaelic community.
“Were #humble And #proud collaborate with @NosCommons And #Native #Interpreters providing translation and interpretation into indigenous languages in the House of Commons pic.twitter.com/XdKnAMKXlF“
— Public Services and Procurement Canada (@PSPC_PSPC) February 7, 2019
The same thing happens in Parliament. Beyond this cultural diversity, on a political level, English is the majority language in the House of Commons (between 70-80%) compared to French (20-30%), according to official data from the last decade. Occasionally, There are also translation and interpretation services in indigenous languages.
In short, these are years of a practice which is now launching in Spain with three co-official languages in addition to Spanish.
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