Languages in Action

Translating for the European Commission

Fiona Graham, EN Department, DG Translation

Outline

Why does the EU need translation? (2-7) How is translation organised at the European

Commission? (8-11) What qualities do translators need? (12-14) What opportunities can we offer? (15-22)

Why? The legal basisTreaty on the Functioning of the European UnionCitizens can use any EU official language in their contacts with EU bodies.

Council Regulation No 1/58Legislation must be draftedin the official languages.

Types of languages

•23 official/working/Treaty languages: Bulgarian, Czech, Polish, Slovak, SlovenianDanish, Dutch, English, German, Swedish French, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, SpanishEstonian, Finnish, HungarianGreek, Irish, Latvian, Lithuanian, Maltese •3 procedural languages: English, French, German

•Additional languages: Scottish Gaelic, Welsh, Basque, Catalan and Galician

Linguists in the EU

Council

Parliament

Court of Justice

Court of Auditors

Economic &Social Committee

Committee of the Regions

Translators: about 4300

European Central Bank

Translation Centre

Interpreters:

about 1000

Scenario 1: German asks Commission to expedite visa procedure for Russian relative

Scenario 2

• Denmark incentivises wind park construction• The Commission looks into competition policy implications

HowHow translation is organised at the Commission

DG Translation: about 2500 translators and support staff

50% in Brussels

50% in Luxembourg

Field Offices in member countries

23

23 language departments

Over 2 million pages translated in 2011

0

500 000

1 000 000

1 500 000

2 000 000

2 500 000

2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011

• Growth in the number of translated pages 2000-2011

Electronic translation tools

• Terminology• IATE (public)• EUR-Lex (public)• DGT Vista • Quest Metasearch• Electronic dictionaries,

glossaries, search engines, Wikipedia, etc.

• Translation tools• Translation memories,

Euramis• Speech recognition• Machine translation

Machine Translation: MT@EC

Things have moved on since

‘Les agriculteurs vis-à-vis de la politique agricole commune’

came out as

‘Farmers live to screw the Common Agricultural Policy’ !

Recruitment criteria

You must be an EU citizen

You must hold a full university degree in languages or another field (minimum BA)

No professional experience is required (though it’s helpful)

Knowledge of languages

• Perfect command of English

• Excellent knowledge of German or French (first source language)

• Excellent knowledge of a second source language from among the EU’s official languages

Other skills

• People with non-language degrees please apply!

• Translator profile and skills needed: see

ec.europa.eu/dgs/translation/workwithus/staff/profile

Job opportunities

• Permanent job(EU civil servant)

• Contract staff

• External contractor(freelance)

• Trainee

Recruitment competitionsfor EU officials

Publication:

• Official Journal of the European Union (C edition)

• EPSO (European Personnel Selection Office) website www.eu-careers.eu

Selection procedure: 5 to 9 months

The competition process

• Apply online (July for translators)

• Pre-selection test (numerical, verbal & abstract reasoning)

• Translation tests, group exercise, structured interview, oral presentation

What can the Commission offer?

• Varied and challenging work• Scope to shape your own career in the Commission• Excellent language learning opportunities• Multicultural environment• €4500/month starting salary• Job security• Good leave entitlement• Flexible working-time arrangements

Contract staff

• Special calls for contract staff

• For more information, check regularly:

ec.europa.eu/dgs/translation/workwithus

Freelance contractors

•The only way: respond to a call for tenders and have your bid accepted

•Calls for tenders for translation services are published in the Official Journal and on our website

ec.europa.eu/dgs/translation/workwithus/contractor

• Duration: 5 months

• Two rounds per year, starting in March and October

• For university graduates only

• For EU citizens – but a quota for other countries’ nationals

• Competence: ability to translate from two EU languages into your main language

• Monthly grant

Traineeships

Thank you for your attention!

Fiona.Graham@ec.europa.eu