The European Union’s Council of Ministers convenes in ten different compositions depending on the topic at hand. The Presidency of the Council rotates amongst the EU Member States every six months. Sweden held the Presidency of the Council for the first half of 2023, during which time up to 150 international EU meetings were held in Sweden along with a large number of meetings of various organisations.

Professional conference interpreting

During Sweden’s Presidency of the Council of the EU, LanguageWire (formerly Delingua) organised conference interpreting for the Swedish Government’s Office at several meetings. The meetings ranged from informal Councils of Ministers to various conferences and official-level meetings. In addition, interpreting was provided to individual high-level representatives through the embassies of different countries.

The number of interpreting languages varied between one and six language pairs, with up to twelve conference interpreters interpreting at one meeting.

Ease of cooperation

The cooperation between LanguageWire and the interpreting coordination of the Swedish Government Office was easy and smooth, as both the end customer and LanguageWire understand well the requirements and needs of conference interpreting.

The coordination work included, among other things, assembling an interpreting team according to the language needs, managing the interpreters’ contracts and access badges as well as ensuring the working conditions and preparation materials.