This paper offers an overview of simultaneous interpreting into a non-mother tongue both from a geographical (East-West), and an economic and historical (from Nuremberg to the present times) point of view, situating the issue within the framework of the controversy surrounding both teaching and professional practice of interpreting in this direction. To achieve this aim, the authors analyze the economic requirements imposed by the private market and perhaps also soon by the international institutions market, and the debate surrounding the issue, where some have been questioning for decades the imposition of interpreting into the mother tongue as a norm, whilst others are still rather reluctant to accept change.