The Senate Bureau has put out to tender a contract that can reach a maximum amount of 756,000 euro for the interpretation and translation services of the interventions made in Basque, Catalan, Galician and Valencian during the parliamentary sessions of the Upper House.
This is stated in the supporting report of the contract, where it is explained that the base bidding budget for the period of one year is 151,250 euro, although there may be up to four other extensions, with an estimated expense of 756,250 euro.
Currently, the use of co-official languages ​​in the Senate is limited to motions in plenary sessions, interventions in the General Commission of the Autonomous Communities or in the presentation of writings.
According to this contract tendered by the Senate Board, up to 544 euro will be paid for an interpretation service of up to half an hour and up to 3,146 euro for an interpretation service between five and eight hours. For the transcription service, they will pay about three cents per transcribed word.
It was in 2005 when the co-official languages ​​began to be incorporated in the Senate, through the Commission of the Autonomous Communities. To do this, the Upper House selected 25 interpreters-translators – seven for Catalan and six for each of the other co-official languages.
On the occasion of the inclusion in 2010 of the co-official languages ​​in the debate on Plenary motions, the Senate Board agreed that these 25 interpreters-translators would also carry out their functions in the Plenary. However, currently only sixteen of the initial twenty-five remain on the list of performers.
In 2023, the budget contemplates an expense of 280,000 euro for the interpretation service and 3,000 euro for the transcription service. The proposal formulated in this contract establishes a maximum annual budget of 151,250 euro, an amount lower than that budgeted in 2023, something that the Upper House attributes to the savings in travel costs, compensation and the rationalisation of the regime applicable to changes in the forecast of plenary sessions.
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