Finnish question disallowed

Date: 09/05/1996

Things are not yet as they should be in the Commission press room and Finnish journalists in Brussels are understandably getting a bit cross.

You have to admit, it is pretty hard to explain why a Finnish journalist should have to put a question to a Finnish Commissioner in English just because no one has provided adequate interpreting facilities to allow them to communicate with each other in their own language.

Swedish is also badly represented, partly due to insufficient interpretation booths and partly because Swedes (as well as Finns) are embarrassingly competent in English and do not need to be pampered.

There are some Commissioners who would not be prepared to address a press conference if their own language were not available in the booths - but Budget Commissioner Erkki Liikanen is not one of them. He gave his presentation in English and then fielded questions in both English and French.

Then a Finnish journalist threw things by deciding to ask a question in her own language. There was a mass fumbling for headphones and total silence from the booths. Finally someone explained rather lamely that there was no Finnish, and indeed no Swedish available.

The Finnish journalist continued in perfect English, shaking her head in disbelief that there was not enough money in the budget for her to ask Liikanen a question in his and her own language.

No precedent has been set by the incident, although years ago, the then Commission President Roy Jenkins spent several minutes searching for interpretation from Danish when questioned in the press room by a journalist from Copenhagen. Eventually he was told that there was no Danish interpretation - five years after Denmark had joined the EU. The point was taken. Linguistic equality was accorded to the Danes within weeks. Now how about it, Mr Liikanen?