Direction générale de la traduction CEPS Membership Meeting Why is the language policy in EU political dynamite? CEPS Membership Meeting 22 February 2008 Juhani Lönnroth Director General European Commission, DGT

Direction générale de la traduction CEPS Membership Meeting Evolution of the translation service in the European Commission Increase Languages423X 6 Management4118X 30 Staff252500X 100 Pages translated X 100

Direction générale de la traduction CEPS Membership Meeting EUROPA and languages 88% of the users speak English. 5 most frequent languages (English, French, Spanish, Italian and German) cover nearly 100% of the linguistic needs of the users.

Direction générale de la traduction CEPS Membership Meeting languages = language combinations Mission impossible? 23 languages = 506 language combinations

Direction générale de la traduction CEPS Membership Meeting Translating at the Commission From which languages? 13%9% Other EU languages 3% 6% German originals 12% 47% French originals 35% English originals 24% 12% Of which: freelance Number of translated pages %

Direction générale de la traduction CEPS Membership Meeting The translation services in the EU European Commission (DGT) Lux – Bxl 2500 European Parliament Lux Council Secretariat Bxl 600 Court of Justice Lux. 851 ICTI* Interpretation services Lawyer linguists *ICTI=Interinstitutional Committee on Translation and Interpretation Translation Centre (CdT) Lux.200 CoR EESC Bxl 530 ECB Frankfurt 65 EIB Lux.47 Court of Auditors Lux. 141

Direction générale de la traduction CEPS Membership Meeting The costs of translation & interpretation 800 million for 2007 for translation (all institutions included) 302 million for the Commission 195 million for interpretation = 2,5 euros/citizen/year Less than 1% of the whole EU budget.

Direction générale de la traduction CEPS Membership Meeting From monolingualism to multilingualism Nationalism - one state - one language Mercantilism - colonialism The hegemony of the language of the conqueror Multilingual national states Multilingualism as part of EUs values unity in diversity Equality between languages, cultures and nations

Direction générale de la traduction CEPS Membership Meeting EU language policy=the legal basis Treaty establishing the European Community: All languages are equally authentic (Art.314) Language regime of the EU institutions determined by the council (art.290) 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 (art.21) Council Regulation No 1 of 15/04/1958: Official and working languages of the EU institutions Regulations and other documents of general application shall be drafted in the official languages. Option for EU institutions to stipulate languages to be used

Direction générale de la traduction CEPS Membership Meeting The three levels of multilingualism Multilingualism is about building bridges, between people and across policies. It has three dimensions and a base Interaction between citizens Access to institutions, rights and obligations Efficient and pragmatic internal language regimes PERFECT PROFICIENCY OF MOTHER TONGUE

Direction générale de la traduction CEPS Membership Meeting Future trends? 1.EU language regime will stay 2.Renewed emphasis on regional languages 3.Rapid growth of the translation industry 4.Stronger interaction between technology and human brain 5.Less but better 6.Coexistence between Globish communication Multilingualism identity Localisation market penetration 7. The language profession will change

Direction générale de la traduction CEPS Membership Meeting Thank you for your attention!