ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the evolving role of retour interpreting in the European Union’s (EU’s) multilingual institutions, focusing on the Directorate-General for Interpretation (DG SCIC) and the Directorate-General for Logistics and Interpretation for Conferences (DG LINC) since the 2004 enlargement, which introduced nine new official languages. Historically, EU interpretation favoured interpreting into the A language (native language) as championed by the Paris School. However, the expansion added languages from Central and Eastern Europe, many of which were less widely spoken, creating a practical necessity for retour interpreting – interpreting into a B language.
The chapter analyses data from 50 high-level meetings and plenary sessions, revealing a divide between older and newer EU languages (pre-2004). While older languages rely predominantly on interpreting into A languages, newer languages exhibit greater dependence on retour interpreting, particularly into English. English emerges as the dominant retour language, especially in booths for newer languages.
The findings also highlight disparities in passive language coverage, with older languages like French and German being widely covered, while newer languages rely on retour due to limited passive coverage. Overall, the study demonstrates that retour interpreting, once an exception, has become indispensable in managing the EU’s expanded multilingual framework, particularly for newer member states.
