Forum Topic

The farce keeps going. .

One couldn't make this up ...https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/brexit-ministers-paid-eu-15m-13839497

Michael Ixer ● 2861d2 Comments

I am not too sure why this is news today as this was reported sometime ago (late summer / early autumn?).Also, the link is misleading as the article mentions £1.5 million for translations of documents and meetings.This is incorrect reporting because documents are translated but meetings have simultaneous interpretation.What I find extraordinary is that, as members of the EU which the UK still is, all contributions paid to the EU include the administration of the Commission which, by definition, incorporates the running of meetings.  The translation of documents is normally to three working languages (English, French and German) as well as simultaneous interpretation at meetings.  The number of official languages in the EU is 24 and all of them are used only when the Parliament meets.I think something somewhere has been lost in translation.

Ivonne Holliday ● 2861d

I obviously missed it the first time around but picked it up in a news feed today. I think its been updated to reflect more expenditure last November. Perhaps it's taken a few weeks to filter through? The language policy seems to indicate that legislation, key political documents and official documents will be translated into all official languages - surely this would mean most if not all of those relating to Brexit, although see I what you mean about meetings. To be honest probably sloppy journalism! I was just thinking it was another example of the Brexit magic money tree that also recently paid out £50k to created a car park and traffic jam in Kent and several millions to help keep some highly paid consultancies from the job seekers queue ...

Michael Ixer ● 2861d