Translation for all EU

In a bid to better communicate the EU to its citizens, the European Commission is doubling its resources to translating its websites into all official EU languages.

The commission has today adopted a series of ‘practical’ measures in order to cope with the nine new official languages since enlargement in 2004.

These measures are expected to make translation become an integral part of the policy making process.

“Thanks to a series of major practical measures adopted over the past year, translation capacity in the commission has increased and the commission has been able to meet its legal obligations under the Treaty," said Ján Figel, European Commissioner for Education, Training, Culture.

"Now, multilingualism is an integral part of a commissioner’s portfolio and the communication adopted today is a contribution to the EU’s multilingual system and its democratic legitimacy.”

The use of new languages from Eastern Europe will not extend to all EU documents; internal texts within the institutions will remain predominantly in English, German and French.

But, now both financial statements and legal documents will be translated into all official languages.

While the commission insists it is on target, an EU official has expressed concern over the need for better quality control, especially for translators of the new languages.

By the end of June 2005, 429 new translators had been recruited and 660 freelance translators are contracted, including 220 for the nine new languages.

Interviews will be held this Autumn in order to be able to hire Bulgarian and Romanian translators with a view to hiring 60 in both languages by January 2007.

The EU’s translation service, located in Brussels and Luxembourg, is the largest in the world – with a permanent staff of 1,300 linguists and 500 support staff.

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