Directorate-General for Translation

EUROPEAN
COMMISSION
European Union and Translation
F. de Vicente
Director
Translation Strategy and Multilingualism
Brussels, 25th of March 2011
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EU and TRANSLATION
I. Specificity of the EU
II. Multilingualism: a political and legal
principle
III. Enlargement and translation needs
IV. EU Institutions and their translation
services
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COMPARISON IO-UE
IO
Cooperation
MS full sovereignity
Unanimity
Delegated powers
EU
Integration
MS transfer sovereignity
Qualified majority
Own powers
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COMPARISON IO-UE
IO
Intergovernmental
International
Minor competences
Indirect effect of legislation
EU
Supragovernmental
Supranational
Important competences
Direct effect of legislation
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COMPARISON IO-UE
IO
Adopts rules
but no legal order
UE
Very developed legal
order
Court of Justice
Enforcement powers
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MULTILINGUALISM LEGAL BASIS
Council Regulation No 1/58
Regulations and other documents of general
application shall be drafted in the official languages.
The Lisbon Treaty
Citizens have a right to
address the official EU
bodies in any of the EUs
official languages and to
receive a reply in that
language.
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MULTILINGUALISM - EVOLUTION
From 6 MS and 4 languages (1958)
to 27 MS and 23 languages (2008)
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EU official languages
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MULTILINGUALISM
Multilingualism at the core of European
construction
political principle
legal principle
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MULTILINGUALISM
Eurlex
entirely multilingual base of EU law
legislation
case law
eur-lex.europa.eu
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MULTILINGUALISM
Information policy
for citizens about EU policies
full multilingualism
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MULTILINGUALISM
EUROPA
main web page
limited multilingualism
(http://europa.eu/index_es.htm)
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MULTILINGUALISM
FOR DAILY WORK
EN, FR, DE
(although all 23 are working languages)
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MULTILINGUALISM
If discrepancy between different linguistic versions
follow the general systematic and the goal
of the legislation)
(Rockfon, C-449/93 and Boucherau, 30/77)
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ENLARGEMENT AND TRANSLATION
Adding a new language needs preparations
starting years ahead
1. On the side of candidate country
2. On the side of the EU institutions
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ENLARGEMENT PREPARATIONS
1) On the side of the candidate country:
translation of the acquis
primary law (Treaties)
secondary law in force
Court of Justice case law
TO BE PUBLISHED ON THE ACCESSION DATE!
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ENLARGEMENT PREPARATIONS
Translation Coordination Units (TCU) set up by
the countries
Assisted by the Commission:
TAIEX (Technical Assistance Information
Exchange Instrument) managed by DG ELARG
http://ec.europa.eu/enlargement/taiex/index_en.htm
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ENLARGEMENT PREPARATIONS
2) On the side of the EU institutions:
revision of the translation of the acquis
language training for in-house translators
recruitment of translators from the new countries
EPSO
European Personel Selection Office
(http://europa.eu/epso/index_en.htm)
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Translation Centre
110
European Commission
1750
European Parliament
760
Cooperate within the
Interinstitutional
Committee
on
Translation
and
Interpretation
(ICTI-CITI)
Court of Auditors
100
Court of Justice
620
European
Investment Bank
30
European Central Bank
70
Council of the EU
650
Committee of the Regions and
European Economic and
Social Committee
350
Number of translating staff in the EU institutions
(interpreters and lawyer-linguists are not included)
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EU TRANSLATION SERVICES
The Translation Centre
Translates for the agencies
specialised in technical subjects
decentralised location
http://www.cdt.europa.eu/
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EU TRANSLATION SERVICES
and, since 1.1.2011
European External Action Service (EEAS)
New EUs diplomatic service
Independent service
Translation needs to be covered by the Council
and the Commission
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EU TRANSLATION SERVICES
a total of 4,440 translators
9 independent translation services
from and into 23 languages
over 4,500,000 pages a year
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The price
All the translation and interpreting services of
all the EU institutions cost each EU citizen
around 2 Euros per year.
The cost of multilingualism adds up to less
than 1% of the annual EU budget.
1/10 000 of the EUs total GDP.
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Thank you very much for your
attention.
Francisco de Vicente
Director
European Commission
E-mail: francisco.de-vicente@ec.europa.eu