Interpreting negotiations of Treaty of Rome

On 26 June 1956, negotiations on treaties to establish an European Economic Community and an Atomic Energy Community (Euratom) started between Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and The Netherlands at the small castle of Val Duchesse on the outskirts of Brussels. With the European Coal and Steel Communitiy they were to form the European Communities, later the EC and now the European Union.
Two of the interpreters at the Intergovernmental Conference that drew up the Treaties of Rome (signed in 1957) talk about the working conditions at the time and the atmosphere of the negotiations.
The negotiations lasted nine months and were carried through with a team of 6 interpreters, first in consecutive and later on also in simultaneous. The team was put together by Renée van Hoof, who went on to become the first Director General of the European Commission's interpreting service, later DG SCIC or DG Interpretation. Dieter Frisch, member of the interpreting team and later to become Director General of Development after leaving the interpreting service, appears as well.
This is an excerpt from Living Memory, with text, narration and video by Susan Roberts and interviews by Ian Andersen. © VideoSCIC, European Commission 2003.

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