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
2323 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