The European Masters in Conference Interpreting is a Masters-type university programme which was launched as a pilot project by the European Commission's Joint Interpreting and Conference Service (JICS), DGXXII and the European Parliament in 1997. At the invitation of these organisations, and in consultation with them, a working group comprising eight university-level institutions drew up a core curriculum for interpreter training at post-graduate level which is being offered across the participating institutions which currently number heighteen. The partner institutions pursue a common policy on student recruitment and assessment and are committed to quality maintenance and regular reviews of the programme to adapt to changing needs and new developments.

The main motivation for the initiative was the shortage of highly-qualified conference interpreters, particularly for language combinations which include less widely-used and less-taught languages.

At the end of the four-year project period, the EMCI working group, which now included fifteen universities, set up the EMCI Consortium. The Consortium Agreement was signed at the European Parliament in Brussels on 30 May 2001.

The Consortium commits itself to furthering cooperation with existing and future members, and to maintaining close collaboration with the Directorate-General for Interpretation of the European Commission (DG-SCIC) and the Directorate-General for Interpretation and Conferences of the European Parliament (DG-INTE).

For the current academic year, the Consortium has received a grant from the European Commission and European Parliament enabling it to carry out key activities such as Project work (Assessment project, Distance Teaching project), student and teacher mobility and finance student visits to Brussels.