1. Languages in Action Translating for the European Commission
Fiona Graham, EN Department, DG Translation

2. 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)

3. Why? The legal basis
Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union Citizens can use any EU official language in their contacts with EU bodies.
Council Regulation No 1/58
Legislation must be drafted in the official languages.
Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, Article 342:
"The rules governing the languages of the institutions of the Union shall, without prejudice to the provisions contained in the Statute of the Court of Justice of the European Union, be determined by the Council, acting unanimously by means of regulations.“  Council Regulation 1/1958
Treaty on European Union, Article 55:
“1. This Treaty, drawn up in a single original in the Bulgarian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Irish, Italian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Maltese, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish and Swedish languages, the texts in each of these languages being equally authentic, shall be deposited in the archives of the Government of the Italian Republic, which will transmit a certified copy to each of the governments of the other signatory States.
2. This Treaty may also be translated into any other languages as determined by Member States among those which, in accordance with their constitutional order, enjoy official status in all or part of their territory. A certified copy of such translations shall be provided by the Member States concerned to be deposited in the archives of the Council.”  additional languages
Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, Article 20:
Every citizen of the Union shall have “the right to petition the European Parliament, to apply to the European Ombudsman, and to address the institutions and advisory bodies of the Union in any of the Treaty languages and to obtain a reply in the same language”.
Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, Article 24:
“Every citizen of the Union may write to any of the institutions or bodies referred to in this Article or in Article 13 of the Treaty on European Union in one of the languages mentioned in Article 55(1) of the Treaty on European Union and have an answer in the same language.”
Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, Article 41:
“ Every person may write to the institutions of the Union in one of the languages of the Treaties and must have an answer in the same language”.

4. Types of languages 23 official/working/Treaty languages:
Bulgarian, Czech, Polish, Slovak, Slovenian
Danish, Dutch, English, German, Swedish
French, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish
Estonian, Finnish, Hungarian
Greek, Irish, Latvian, Lithuanian, Maltese
3 procedural languages: English, French, German
Additional languages: Scottish Gaelic, Welsh, Basque, Catalan and Galician
Official languages
Council Regulation No 1 of 1958 (as last amended by Council Regulation (EC) No 1791/2006 of 20 November 2006), Article 1: “The official languages and the working languages of the institutions of the Union shall be Bulgarian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Irish, Italian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Maltese, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish and Swedish.”
Regulation No 1, Article 2: Any of the official languages can be used in correspondence with the EU institutions and the writer has the right to receive a reply in the same language.
Regulation No 1, Article 5: EU legislation is published in all the official languages.
In the case of Irish, under a derogation requested by the Irish authorities in 2005 and in force since 2007, only regulations adopted jointly by the European Parliament and the Council under the co-decision procedure and correspondence with the public have to be translated into Irish. This derogation was reviewed in 2011and prolonged.
Working languages
Those used within or between institutions. The official languages are also the working languages of the EU. For comparison, the United Nations has 193 member states, but six working languages (Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish).
Treaty languages
Treaty languages are those in which the primary legislation, Treaties and Acts of Accession are drawn up. Irish was a Treaty language before it was granted the status of an official language on 1 January 2007 (i.e. primary legislation had to be translated into Irish).
Procedural languages
For efficiency reasons, not all the working languages are used all the time. Article 6 of Regulation No 1 allows EU institutions to stipulate in their rules of procedure which languages are to be used in specific cases. These are called ‘procedural languages’. In the Commission, the three procedural languages are English, French and German. Depending on the specific file (if it e.g. concerns a particular Member State), further language versions may be required.
Non-procedural languages
All the other official languages are referred to as ‘non-procedural languages’.
Additional languages
Languages recognised by the Constitution of a Member State on all or part of its territory or authorised by law for use as a national language. These are languages other than those listed in Regulation No 1.
In June 2005, the Council accepted at request of Spain the use in the EU institutions of Basque, Catalan and Galician — which have special status under the Spanish Constitution. Each institution has made its own arrangements with the Spanish government, which will bear any extra expense incurred.
The use of Welsh and Scottish Gaelic was accepted in 2008 at the request of the United Kingdom.

5. Economic & Social Committee
Linguists in the EU
Council
Committee of the Regions
Parliament
European Central Bank
Court of Justice
The European Commission’s DGT, is just one, although the largest, of many similar services working in all EU institutions. You have translation departments at the European Parliament, the Council, the Court of Justice and the Court of Auditors, the European Social and Economic Committee and the Committee of the Regions, the European Central Bank in Frankfurt and the European Investment Bank. There’s also a Translation Centre for EU agencies and bodies. All in all, translation work occupies around internal staff and hundreds of companies providing freelance translators.
The Commission’s pool of freelance translators is around 600 companies and individual translators.
Number of interpreters: 860 (SCIC 550, EP 260, CoJ 50).
SCIC’s pool of accredited freelance interpreters is around
Why have separate translation services? Institutions have different roles and different text-types (CoJ most extreme example). Studies have indicated that coordinating such a big group of translators would not be efficient.
Translation Centre
Court of Auditors
Translators: about 4300
Interpreters: about 1000 5

6. Scenario 1: German asks Commission to expedite visa procedure for Russian relative
As we’ve seen, EU citizens can write to the Commission, the Council, the European Parliament or any other of the EU institutions in any of the 23 official languages. Let’s take an example. Mr Schmidt from Berliner is having trouble booking an appointment at the German consulate in Vladivostok for his Russian aunt. He’s angry that EU law on issuing visas is not being properly respected, so he writes to the Commission to ask for help. Now it just so happens that Mr Giglio, the desk officer dealing with his request, has a limited command of German, but understands English. Moreover, he wants to discuss the details of the case with a British colleague. Mr Giglio requests a translation of the letter into English – and it’s here that the English Translation Department steps in. 6

7. Denmark incentivises wind park construction
Scenario 2
Denmark incentivises wind park construction
The Commission looks into competition policy implications 7

8. How 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
The 2500 staff includes all staff categories, i.e. permanent, contract, temporary, seconded national experts, trainees and interim.
23 language departments

9. Over 2 million pages translated in 2011
Growth in the number of translated pages
The graph shows how the number of translated pages by DGT has constantly increased over time.
Note: It shows the volume of documents sent to DGT for translation – NOT the total volume of documents drafted in the Commission. DGT doesn’t keep records of documents that never come to its workflow.

10. 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
Online information sources and tools that DGT translators use a lot in their work:
IATE database: EU-related terminology used in the various European institutions;
EUR-Lex: a compendium of all EU laws currently in force in all official EU languages;
Translation memories are translation or project specific, while Euramis is the central repository of all translated text segments.
A new machine translation system is under development. When final in 2013, it will be available for the European and national public administrations. In summer 2011, translation engines for more than 50 language pairs were built and are now undergoing intensive tests by translators within DGT.

11. 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’ !

12. 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)
EU citizenship: military service obligations fulfilled.
University degree: at least 3 years higher education (BA level).

13. 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
In addition, knowledge of any additional languages is an asset.

14. Other skills People with non-language degrees please apply!
Translator profile and skills needed: see ec.europa.eu/dgs/translation/workwithus/staff/profile
Translators profile
Commission translators translate political, legal and administrative texts, and web texts, usually into their main language. DGT needs high-calibre graduates — including people with science degrees or non-language arts degrees relevant to EU policies.
Basic requirements
ability to grasp varied and complex issues, react swiftly to changing circumstances, manage information and communicate effectively;
initiative, imagination, intellectual curiosity and motivation;
capacity to work consistently and under pressure — independently and as part of a team — and to fit into a multicultural working environment;
ability to maintain the self-discipline required to work in a large public-service organisation.
Specific skills
Language skills
perfect command of all aspects and stylistic levels of mother tongue/main language;
thorough knowledge of two or more official EU languages, at least one of which must be English, French or German.
Thematic skills
familiarity with economic and financial affairs, legal matters, technical or scientific fields.
Translation skills
a capacity to understand texts in the source language and to render them correctly in the target language, using a style and register appropriate to the purpose of the text;
a capacity to research topics and terminology quickly and efficiently in both source language and target languages;
a capacity to master computer-assisted translation and terminology tools, as well as standard office-automation software.
Recommendation: Show the audience the translators’ profile web page.

15. Job opportunities Permanent job (EU civil servant) Contract staff
External contractor (freelance)
Trainee

16. Recruitment competitions for EU officials
Publication:
Official Journal of the European Union (C edition)
EPSO (European Personnel Selection Office) website
Selection procedure: 5 to 9 months
The current EPSO procedure for selecting permanent staff for EU institutions:
much quicker competitions with fewer steps in the procedure
annual competitions for the most common job profiles – translators and interpreters in summer
competency-based testing
assessment of specific professional skills and knowledge
assessment of core competencies such as: analysis and problem solving; communicating; delivering quality and results; learning and development; prioritising and organising; resilience; working with others.
Participants will have the possibility to receive feedback on their performance.
Some competitions are open to university students in their final year, provided they are scheduled to graduate during the competition. They will be recruited only if they graduate.
Recommendation: Show the audience the EPSO website

17. The competition process
Apply online (July for translators)
Pre-selection test (numerical, verbal & abstract reasoning)
Translation tests, group exercise, structured interview, oral presentation
Preselection In the new system, the preselection will feature competency-based testing. It will involve computer-based tests (CBT) of cognitive ability (verbal, numerical and abstract reasoning) and situational judgment, plus professional and language competency, depending on the profile sought.
The test on EU knowledge has been removed from this stage, and will be assessed at a later stage, in close relation with job-related exercises.
Assessment: all key competencies are tested
full or half-day of tests, depending on the type of competition
conducted in the candidate's second language (English, French or German), except for profiles requiring specific language skills
For linguists,
practical linguistic tests
a structured interview
More information including sample tests is on the EPSO website.
Outcome: The reserve lists will be valid for 1 year or for a longer period (typically 3 years). 17

18. 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
Examples of mobility opportunities:
in DG Translation: terminology (IATE), editing, outreach (Field Offices, communication), secondments (Council Presidencies)
other posts in the Commission (since everyone belongs to the same staff categories - administrator or assistant).
Flexible work time arrangements: part-time, flexitime 18

19. Contract staff Special calls for contract staff
For more information, check regularly:
ec.europa.eu/dgs/translation/workwithus
Contract staff
Duration of contracts: 3 months to 3 years. Note: in any 12-year period, you cannot work for the European Commission on non-permanent contracts for more than 6 years in total (all types of contract combined). Probationary period: 9 months (for contracts of 1 year or more).
Recommendation: Show the audience the web page on contract staff.

20. 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
Calls for tenders
We issue calls for tenders for language combinations or fields for which there is a large volume of work to be outsourced.
Successful tenderers are awarded framework contracts (duration of 4 years max) which commit them to providing translations at a price they quoted in their tenders. Framework contracts do not guarantee that the contractor will necessarily receive work.
Individual translations are allocated to the contractor offering the best price-quality ratio.
Calls for expressions of interest
We issue these for lower-volume language combinations and fields.
Tenderers who meet the selection criteria are added to our list of approved translation-providers for a particular language combination and/or field.
They will then be invited to quote a price for relevant jobs as they come up.
Selection criteria for contractors
Technical and professional capacity to carry out the work (know-how, efficiency, experience, reliability)
Minimum qualification: university degree
Information required on: working methods, recruitment procedures, translation capacity, use of translation tools, quality assurance methods
Calls for other services and supplies
We may also issue calls for tender for computer-assisted translation, revision, editing, and supplies of dictionaries and reference books.
Recommendation: Show the audience the web page on calls for tender.

21. Traineeships 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
Currently the monthly grant is €1087 (February 2012).

22. Thank you for your attention!