Interpretation and Translation Directive: An Assessment of Fifteen Years of Implementation
The right to interpretation and translation in criminal proceedings is fundamental to a fair trial, yet fifteen years after the adoption of Directive 2010/64/EU, significant and systemic failures persist across EU Member States.
Our research showed that in 2020, the transposition of the Directive into the law of Member States had been broadly completed. However, there were still many outstanding issues that undermined the effectiveness of the rights guaranteed by the Directive. Some of these issues relate to the very core of the right to interpretation and translation, such as:
- The failure to properly assess the interpreting needs of the suspect or accused person,
- the insufficient quality of legal interpretation,
- the failure to provide interpretation services for client-lawyer communication, and:
- the broad use of oral translations.
Our new policy brief “Interpretation and Translation Directive: An Assessment of Fifteen Years of Implementation” builds on this work and goes further. Drawing on consultations with criminal defence practitioners in Italy, Greece, Portugal, Romania and Ireland, and expert contributions from further europeans jurisdictions through our Legal Experts Advisory Panel (LEAP), it documents persistent shortcomings in access to quality interpretation, confidential lawyer-client communication, translation of essential documents, professional standards, remedies, and funding. Practitioners across Europe continue to flag the absence of:
- Official registries,
- insufficient remuneration for interpreters and translators, and;
- the lack of effective mechanisms to challenge poor-quality interpretation.
Fair Trials has also advanced this issue through strategic litigation, including an intervention before the ECtHR in Vizgirda v. Slovenia and, in collaboration with the European Criminal Bar Association (ECBA), a successful intervention before the Italian Constitutional Court in June 2024 on interpreter compensation.
This report sets out concrete recommendations for the European Commission and Member States to close the gap between law on paper and justice in practice.
You can download the report by clicking on the download box in the top right of this page.
