The Directorate General for Interpretation (DG Interpretation – also known as SCIC) is the European Commission’s interpreting service and conference organiser. It reports to Commissioner Androulla Vassiliou

The European Union, in its essence, can be seen as one long, on-going, intense political and technical conference. For 50 years, the Member States have been negotiating day in and day out on the basis of proposals from the Commission. The Regulations and Directives that make up EU legislation begin around the conference table. DG Interpretation provides interpreters for some 11.000 meetings every year and is the largest interpreting service in the world.

DG Interpretation manages the allocation of Commission meeting rooms and provides support for the smooth running of meetings in many languages that are held there. It also organises conferences for Directorates-General and departments of the Commission, typically in the range of over 40 main events per year. Its mission is therefore to make possible multilingual communication at the core of Community decision-making by:

• providing quality interpretation services;
• providing an effective service of conference organisation including technical support and design management of modern conference facilities;
• helping to put the Commission's new multilingualism strategy into practice.

Giving everyone at the table a voice in their own language is a fundamental requirement of the democratic legitimacy of the European Union. In many cases, the legal acts resulting from discussions will have an immediate and direct effect on people’s lives. There should be no obstacle to understanding and putting views in meetings. The citizens of Europe should not have to be represented in Brussels by their best linguists: they can send their best experts. DG Interpretation will make sure they understand each other.

DG Interpretation provides quality interpretation in meetings arranged by the Commission and the other Institutions it serves, and provides a conference organising capacity to Commission services. The European Council, The Council of the Union, The Committee of the Regions, The European Economic and Social Committee, The European Investment Bank, and the agencies and offices in the Member States all get their interpreters from DG Interpretation. At present, the Council accounts for around 46% of the interpreting services provided, followed by the Commission with around 40%. The remaining 14% are spread over the two Committees, the European Investment Bank and various agencies and other bodies.The European Parliament and the European Court of Justice have separate interpreting services with which DG Interpretation collaborates closely.

DG Interpretation and the separate interpreting services of the European Parliament and of the Court of Justice handle the spoken word in meetings, mainly in simultaneous interpretation, at a total cost of less than half a euro a year per European citizen. DG Interpretation on its own costs the taxpayer 0.21 €/citizen/year.

• 600 staff interpreters
• 300 - 400 freelance interpreters per day
• 3000 accredited freelance interpreters
• 50 - 60 meetings per day
• 10000 – 11000 meeting days per year
• ±135000 interpreter days per year
• 40 major Commission conferences organised per year
• Total operating cost 2010: € 130,000,000
• Cost: 0.26 €/European citizen/year