Insider: Why is it so critical to maintain communication in all of these different languages? To outsiders, it often seems that a more practical solution than translating into 380 different language combinations will have to be found at some point.

We must do it – we have no choice. This is because the EU would lose its transparency and its relevance to the citizens that it claims to represent if we do not. The EU is currently the only organization in the world that provides this level of transparency, and it must continue to maintain its legitimacy through this all-important access to information for every citizen that it claims to represent in whatever official language they require. We are simply an extension of the public services that the EU provides.

45% of EU citizens are monolingual … that’s 200,000,000 people.

And remember, we translate ideas and concepts, which allow people to communicate – not only words. The EU is a big peace project – as long as people communicate, they don’t wage war. There are more than 200 million monolingual citizens (out of a total of about 450 million inhabitants–that’s equal to almost 45%) living within the boundaries of the EU. I think that, prior to this most recent enlargement, we did not really understand the significance of this number.

Linguistic diversity is both an objective and a challenge for all EU institutions. Linguistic diversity is a value in itself, and its preservation a sign of respect for the cultural identities of all EU citizens. It is also a democratic right. The EU adopts legislation that is directly binding on its citizens, who cannot be expected to comply with laws that they do not understand. Therefore, these laws must be promulgated in their languages.

Moreover, the EU's citizens have a right to know what the EU is doing in their name and to contribute their own suggestions and comments on the building of the Union. Therefore, EU institutions must communicate with them in their own language. The EU is unique in being the only international organization to which all its citizens can speak in their own language. While safeguarding the capacity to communicate with their citizens, EU institutions also have to ensure efficiency in their day-to-day operations.

Insider: In concrete terms, what is your resource challenge at the DGT?

Let me provide some perspective for your readers. The current struggle that we’re having with “not enough resources” is actually a reflection of two trends:

(1) what is happening in the Member States themselves (and especially in the recently acceded Member States),

and

(2) the fact that some within the EU regard Language Services as being less important as a public service as compared to other services.

Obviously, both of these factors have a tremendous impact on resources.

What is not so well understood is that the Directorate-General for Translation itself doesn’t need these translations – its customers do, i.e., the other EU services are the ones who need this information to maintain their transparency and their validity vis-à-vis the citizens they serve.

The cost of translation per EU Citizen is more or less the price of a cappuccino!

The recent enlargement process has also served to demonstrate the value of Language Services in a very concrete way. Here’s why. The EU's 2005 budget is approximately 1 billion euro for all language services – a figure that has been much discussed in the press. However, if you view translation as a Cost per EU Citizen, it is more or less the price of a cappuccino (!) and represents, on the whole, barely 1% of the entire EU’s budget. Therefore, when you really think about it in the larger context, it’s very clear that Language Services provide a high degree of access to all EU citizens in their local language at an extremely affordable price. I think that this is critical to understand when you analyze our role in the overall scheme of things.

Source:
“Translation in the Commission: Where Do We Stand Eight Months After the Enlargement?”

Insider: What is the DGT doing to meet its publicly stated goal to increase translation productivity by 40% by 2006 (as compared to 2003)?

(For more details, please refer to “Commission Adopts Measures to Match Supply and Demand for Translation.”)

To provide some perspective: over the last ten years alone, we have increased our productivity by 50% through investing in three areas: (1) training our people, (2) improvements in workflow methodology and (3) technology. I expect to see dramatic changes over the next few years in how technology – such as translation memories (TMs), terminology databases and machine translation – will be applied and leveraged within our organization to meet the multilingual requirements of all EU citizens in all Member States, current and future.

Web Sites of Interest For a background booklet on the DGT’s work, click Translating for a Multilingual Community. For a brochure that summarizes all of the electronic tools used by the DGT, click http://europa.eu.int/comm/dgs/translation/bookshelf/tools_and_workflow_en.pdf For information on the translation field offices, click http://europa.eu.int/comm/dgs/translation/aboutsdt/antennes/antennes_en.htm Institutions, Services and Other EU Bodies For the electronic directory of European institutions, click http://europe.eu.int/idea/en/index.htm For the Directorate-General of Translation, click http://europa.eu.int/comm/dgs/translation/index_en.htm For the Directorate-General of Interpretation, click http://europa.eu.int/comm/scic/index_en.htm For the Translation Centre, click http://www.cdt.eu.int/ Staff Recruitment For job opportunities in EU institutions, click http://europa.eu.int/epso/index_en.htm For recruitment competitions in EU institutions, click http://europea.eu.int/epso/competitions/conthome_en.htm For the timetable for forthcoming competitions, click http://europea.eu.int/epso/competitions/planned_en.cfm Information About Countries That Have Applied to Join the EU Commission – Enlargement http://europa.eu.int/comm/enlargement/index.htm To express interest in translation work into the languages of applicant countries, click http://europa.eu.int/comm/dgs/translation/enlargement/index_en.htm

We are focusing on three key areas to enable us to meet the goal:

1. Training and Technology

The DGT already maintains one of the highest rates of training in the Commission, and we will continue to do so going forward. We have just reorganized our recruitment infrastructure, so it’s now time to consolidate the organization and to let things “settle” a bit.

We need domain specialists with excellent linguistic training.

I might add that the implementation of educational programs within the EU could serve as a model for the rest of the world, whereby secondary students are taught two languages beyond their own to facilitate free movement within the labor market. At University level, programs underway include the European Master of Translation Degree. The challenge is that we don’t need linguists who only translate, but rather domain specialists with excellent linguistic training.

2. Workflow Process

Integrating translation tools into our workflow process is critical. This includes voice recognition technology, translation workstations, and document search and retrieval. We also have more work to do to maximize our databases and translation memories and to maintain them as we are in the process of implementing a real CMS/GCMS (Content Management System/Global Content Management System) workflow system. The evaluation of standards, new tools and systems is key to our success.

We recently launched an interoperability project that covers several large terminology collections: IATE (Inter-Active Terminology for Europe) is the joint terminology database designed for use by all institutions/bodies within the EU that will replace Eurodicautom. We are currently working, in close collaboration with the other European institutions, to make this interinstitutional term bank available to all citizens in the near future. The Commission has always taken the lead in this area to develop the tools that are required, but other institutions and bodies within the EU share the maintenance costs. Canada also wants to interlink with it, and we are considering this.

3. What We Actually Translate

Your readers may be aware of our move to require shorter documents from the people who create many of the documents that we translate. To that end, we have created a demand-management system to ensure that the standard length of documents is fully respected, e.g., communications and explanatory texts are not to exceed 15 pages. In addition, we are looking at doing more pre-translation, e.g. templates for repetitive or recurring documents such as budget sheets or calls for tenders.

That being said, texts that the Commission is legally or politically bound to produce (such as draft regulations and directives, state aid, anti-trust and merger decisions, etc.) will continue to be translated and published in all languages. Citizens and companies will continue to receive correspondence in their own language.

(For more details, please refer to “Commission Adopts a Communication Reviewing and Adjusting Its Strategy for the Provision of Translation Services.”)

Of course, quality control is key. Our expectations are high because our mandate is visible and comprises a judicial mandate for decision-making and information distribution. Therefore, quality assurance will have an impact on our forecasted growth towards a 50% outsourced process.

Insider: What has the Commission learned from last year’s Accession?

To start the process even earlier! We already have the Task Force in place for the countries being considered for membership for 2007 (Bulgaria and Romania) and beyond (Croatia and Turkey). This Task Force is responsible for preparing our service for the enlargement, in particular by well-timed recruitment of translators, terminology development and contacts with national authorities.

Though there are fewer languages represented in the next round of accession (they almost doubled with last year’s enlargement), the possible language combinations will grow exponentially once again to 506 (after adding Irish, Bulgarian and Romanian) and even 600 (with Croatian and Turkish).

Insider: Both your institution and the Canadian Federal Government Translation Bureau are facing the same crisis, i.e., supply is not meeting demand. Are there any ways in which your two organizations might be able to cooperate to meet this critical challenge?

Yes, there are ways, even though Canada is not an EU Member State. We face common challenges in the areas of (1) image building, (2) defining professional standards and (3) building and maintaining terminology. Meeting with the Bureau during the LISA Forum Europe in Paris last year provided the opportunity to share some initial ideas in person. We are following up through the exchange of best practice, so that the two organizations can avoid reinventing the same wheels.

Insider: Does business have a responsibility to help organizations such as yours meet their overwhelming multilingual needs? How? Are open standards part of this solution?

This is actually a difficult question to answer. On the surface, it would appear that the two sectors have different needs. The overarching goal of business is to sell its products, while we have to be very careful of the legal implications of any conflicts of interest.

Of course, there are certainly areas in which we can cooperate to our mutual benefit. We can work together to advance tools development. For example, though the commercial market for machine translation may be relatively small, it is an application that we would like to see further developed for our use. We can help to enhance the competition, which will have beneficial effects on the quality and the price of this technology.

By the way, LISA is the perfect forum for us to meet together with technology service providers through workshops and presentations in a neutral setting. As the nexus for this industry, LISA provides a level playing field where all parties can meet to discuss our challenges and possible solutions to maintain an ongoing dialog that supports product development.

We can collaborate on training – both sectors have the same goals in this area – by developing curricula, creating standards for certification, etc. And we can join with industry to approach universities together to ensure that there are professional translators for the next generation.

---

The European Commission's Directorate General for Translation is the largest translation service in the world. Located in Brussels and Luxembourg, it has a permanent staff of some 1400 linguists and 500 support staff, and employs freelance translators all over the world. Known within the Commission as the DGT, the service translates written texts into and out of all the EU's 21 official languages, exclusively for the European Commission. The languages include Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Maltese, Polish, Portuguese, Slovak, Slovene, Spanish and Swedish and recently, in June 2005, Irish was granted the status of official and working language of the European Union, bringing the number of official languages to 21.

Karl-Johan Lönnroth has spent his entire career supporting international cooperation through the European Commission, the OECD, the UN, the ILO and various institutions in the Nordic countries. Prior to being appointed Director-General for Translation in 2004, Lönnroth was Deputy Director-General of the Directorate-General for Employment and Social Affairs at the European Commission. From 1991-1996, he was Director of the Employment Department at the International Labour Office in Geneva. Lönnroth has a Masters Degree in Political Sciences from the University of Helsinki (Finland), an MA from the University of Wisconsin (USA) and a diploma from the Ecole Nationale d'Administration (France).