1. The Directorate-General for Translation at the European Commission
Brussels
Communication and Information Unit

2. Contents Multilingualism in the world (slides 3-7)
Directorate-General for Translation in a multilingual European Union (slides 8-40)
Working in and with DGT (slides 41-57)
Finally… (slides 58-59)
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3. Multilingualism in the world
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4. What is multilingualism?
several languages spoken within a geographical area;
the ability to master several languages;
a policy which requires an organisation/ a company/an institution to use several languages for communication
(2) the ability of a person to master several languages. The Barcelona European Council in 2002 restated the principle of ‘mother tongue plus two’, under which all EU citizens should be taught at least two foreign languages in addition to their mother tongue from a very early age. Languages are considered a basic skill that every citizen should acquire at school.
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5. The world’s top 10 languages – native speakers
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6. Linguistic diversity
Multilingualism is not a uniquely European feature. Other continents are much more linguistically diverse.
Europe wants to preserve what diversity remains after the triumph of the 19th century idea “one nation, one country, one language”
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7. Languages mean jobs!
The language industry has been less affected by the economic crisis than other sectors, according to a study carried out for the European Commission in The study, the first to analyse the size of the language industry EU-wide, covers translation, interpreting, localising and globalising, subtitling and dubbing, language technology tools, multilingual conference organisation and language teaching. It puts EU-wide turnover at EUR 8.4 billion (2008). This is set to increase by at least 10 % annually, over the next few years, to between EUR 16.5 billion and EUR 20 billion by This is one of the highest growth-rates in EU industry.
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8. Directorate-General for Translation in a multilingual European Union
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9. EU official languages
The number of languages has been continuously increasing since 1958.
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10. Surviving without translation
TOKYO metro map – illustrates what communication could be like in 23 languages without translation, i.e. without the possibility to obtain information in a language that citizens understand.
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11. Where does DGT come in?
Translation is just one part of a more complex policy.
On the one hand, the Commission encourages citizens to learn foreign languages so that they can interact and take full advantage of the Union.
On the other, it is clear that not even the most competent polyglot can be expected to learn all the languages of Europe (80 autochthonous, many more spoken by migrants from other continents).
Furthermore, available data (Eurobarometer, February 2006) show that at least 40% of European citizens can only speak and understand their mother tongue.
The institutions therefore have the duty to provide translations of legislation and policy documents into all official languages.
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12. European Investment Bank
Number of translating staff in the EU institutions (interpreters and lawyer-linguists are not included)
European Parliament
760
European Commission
1750
Council of the EU
650
Cooperate within the Interinstitutional
Committee on
Translation
and
Interpretation
(ICTI-CITI)
Translation Centre
110
Committee of the Regions and European Economic and Social Committee 350
Court of Auditors
100
DGT is just one, albeit the largest, of many language services across all the EU institutions.
You may have heard of the translation departments at the European Parliament, the Council, the Court of Justice and the Court of Auditors, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions, the European Central Bank and the European Investment Bank.
There is also a Translation Centre for EU agencies without their own in-house translation capacity. All in all, translation work occupies almost 5000 internal staff as translators, backed up by almost support staff.
European Investment Bank 30
Court of Justice
620
European Central Bank 70
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13. We translate from and into all official EU languages...CS DE GA DA ES SL SK HU MT IT PL RO EL PT NL BG ET
The Directorate-General for Translation deals with written texts for the European Commission; we do not work for other institutions or bodies. FI LV LT FR SV EN
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14. …and on all subject areas
The Directorate-General for Translation provides written translations for all the fields where the Commission has the right to initiate legislation.
The Lisbon Treaty, which eliminates the three-pillar structure and introduces new fields of activity (for example, common security and defence operations and the new arrangements for the High Representative for Foreign and Security Affairs) means that more documents will be produced by the Commission in certain areas, entailing more translation and, as is often the case, new terminology.
However, this is nothing new to translators, who are used to expanding their expertise as the EU expands its fields of competence.
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15. We serve the citizens of Europe Translation is part of democracy
Our clients
We serve the citizens of Europe
Translation is part of democracy
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16. Building the European Union
Thanks to translation, citizens can take part in the common project of building the European Union and contribute to its openness and legitimacy
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17. The benefits of translation
Good translation contributes to the legislative process
Translation and editing contribute to better regulation
The photo depicts the entire “acquis communautaire” translated into one of the “new” languages (2007).
“ Acquis communautaire” = the body of the EU law, comprising approx pages. Every country joining the EU has to have the ”acquis” translated before accession.
1 Page = characters without spaces.
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18. The legal basis Council Regulation No 1/58
Regulations and other documents of general application shall be drafted in the official languages.
Treaty establishing the European Community and the Lisbon Treaty
Citizens have a right to address the official EU bodies in any of the EU’s official languages and to receive a reply in that language.
Articles 20 and 24 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (the Lisbon Treaty, TFEU):
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”.
The same rule is echoed in Article 41 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights: “ 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”.
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19. Types of languages Official languages = 23 Treaty languages = 23
Irish derogation
Treaty languages = 23
Working languages = 23
Procedural languages = 3 - EN, FR, DE
Non-procedural languages = 20
Additional languages
Official languages
Article 342 of TFEU: the Council, acting unanimously, decides the rules governing the languages of the EU institutions - Regulation No 1 of 15 April 1958 determining the languages to be used by the European Economic Community (now the European Union).
Which languages are ‘official languages’?
Article 1 of Council Regulation No 1 of 1958, as last amended by Council Regulation (EC) No 1791/2006 of 20 November 2006: “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.’”
Article 2, Regulation No 1: 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. EU legislation is published in all the official languages (Article 5 of Regulation No 1).
In the case of Irish, under a derogation requested by the Irish authorities in 2005, since 1 January 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. The derogation will be reviewed every five years, at which time the Irish government may request that it be removed or continued.
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 (ie primary legislation had to be translated into Irish).
Working languages
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).
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 (for example, if it concerns a particular Member State), further language versions may be required.
Non-procedural languages
All the other official languages (except EN, FR, DE) 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 took this action in response to a political initiative by Spain concerning its regional languages — Basque, Catalan and Galician — which have special status under the Spanish Constitution. Based on the Council conclusions (2005), each institution has made its own arrangements with the Spanish government, which will bear any extra expense incurred.
On the basis of the 2005 Council conclusions, the use of Welsh and Scottish Gaelic was accepted, at the request of the United Kingdom, in July 2008.
Under the Lisbon Treaty, arrangements can be made between a Member State and the EU institutions on the use of any other additional language.
For more information, see the press pack.
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20. DGT’s staff Some 1 750 translators and 600 support staff
50% in Brussels
50% in Luxembourg
Field Offices in Member States
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21. Organisation chart of the DGT
Director General
Assistants
Translation Centre
Adviser
Audit
Communication and information
Legal, interinsti-tutional and international affairs
Directorate A Translation
Directorate C Translation
Directorate D
Transversal
linguistic services
Directorate R
Resources
Directorate S
Translation strategy
and multilingualism
Danish LD
Swedish LD D 2 -
WEB
translation
Finnish LD
Italian LD
Spanish LD
D4 - Editing
Portuguese LD
Slovakian LD
Greek LD
D1 - Field Offices
and relations with
representations R 3
Informatics 4
Training
Financial resources
R5 - Internal administrative matters 1
Human resources S
External translation
Multilingualism and
translation studies
Demand
management
Evaluation and
analysis
Estonian LD
Hungarian LD
Lithuanian LD
Slovenian LD
Maltese LD
Latvian LD
Czech LD
Directorate B Translation
English LD
Irish
D3 - Library, terminology and translation support
French LD
German LD
Dutch LD
Polish LD
LUX
BRU
Bulgarian LD
Romanian LD
Organisation chart of the DGT
The basic structure is linguistic, with one translating department for each official language, and one translating unit for Irish.
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22. What do we translate? Legal acts and preparatory documents
Commission decisions and communications
Publications
Correspondence
Speeches, minutes
Reports, working documents
Web pages
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23. Our products Box from http://www.cc.cec/translation/index_en.htm
Full-length translation: Request via the tool Poetry.
Written summary: A condensed account in writing of the main points of a text. Suitable for a long document in an unfamiliar language.
Translation hotline: A fast-track service for translating short texts of no more than 250 characters — a word, sentence, or paragraph — into one or more languages.
Oral summary: A quick oral account of the content of a text.
Web translation and editing:
During drafting of web pages: linguistic advice and editing, to ensure only web-optimised originals are sent for translation.
For finished web pages: translation – localisation to suit each language and meet linguistic sensitivities in each country.
Editing of originals: For documents drafted in English or French that might need linguistic improvement (drafted by non-native speakers).
Machine translation: Positive - accessible by all Commission officials and extremely fast; negative - requires further processing by human (translator).
Post-edited machine translation: Designed for the Commission’s machine translation users without time or resources to revise a raw machine translation themselves. Done by a network of specialised freelance translators.
For more detailed information, see DGT-MyIntraComm.
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24. Breakdown across products and services
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25. Trends in translation at the Commission (breakdown by source language)
In 2009, DGT’s total output was about 1.6 million translated pages.
This graph shows a constant increase in the output of pages translated by DGT.
After the 2004 EU enlargement, the number of pages drafted in English has been constantly increasing.
Information sent to the Commission by the Member States has increased in line with every enlargement, and so has the number of pages translated into EN, FR, DE. The three procedural languages are used the most so that Commission officials can understand documents sent by the MS.
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26. Breakdown by target language (2009)
The high number of pages translated into EN reflects the large number of documents received from the Member States in all their languages. These have to be translated into a language understandable to Commission officials.
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27. Traditional translation aids
Reference works
Libraries (Brussels and Luxembourg)
Contact with customers/other translators
Contact with experts in the Commission, the other institutions or the Member States
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28. Electronic translation tools
Terminology
Electronic dictionaries, glossaries, etc.
IATE (public)
EUR-Lex (public)
Quest Metasearch
Dossier Manager
DGT Vista + SG Vista
Translation tools
Translator's Workbench/Euramis
Machine translation
Voice recognition
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
ECMT — the Commission’s machine translation service — for all Commission officials and national civil services in EU countries only (
Translation resources website — language resources for translating and drafting for all EU official languages
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29. EUR-Lex Repository of the EU law Multilingual search
Example: Regulation 1/58, in EN and FR
EUR-Lex provides free access to European Union law and other documents considered to be public. The website is available in 23 official languages of the European Union. You can choose your preferred language from the language bar at the top of the homepage.
The contents of the site amount to some documents, with texts dating back to The database is updated daily and every year around documents are added.
EUR-Lex offers: daily editions of the Official Journal of the European Union online, simple search, advanced search and browsing options, the possibility to display and/or download documents (PDF, HTML, DOC, TIFF), analytical metadata for each document.
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30. IATE (Interactive Terminology for Europe)
Terminology database of all the EU institutions
Example: the term ‘European Union’ in EN and FR
The IATE database contains 8.1 million terms, about abbreviations and phrases used in all EU institutions in all 23 official EU languages, Latin and some other languages.
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31. IATE – high interest
Peaks of more than queries per day, or above 7 million per month.
There is a high interest in IATE by the public (language professionals, students etc.).
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32. Quality assurance Specialisation of translators Translation memories
Revision of translations
Coordination of language versions, electronic exchange of translators’ notes (Elise)
Support functions: IT, terminology, documentation, etc.
Improvement of original texts:
Editing service for English and French originals
Clear writing campaigns
Programme for Quality Management in Translation - 22 quality actions (brochure) available on
Total Quality Management – applies not only to translation, but to all activities of an organisation.
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33. Training and personal development
Annual training strategy and individual training plans
Thematic, language & IT training
Transfer to another post (DGT, Commission, another institution)
Tele-working and part-time working
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34. Relations with universities Visiting translators scheme
What else do we do?
Relations with universities
Visiting translators scheme
Juvenes Translatores
Localisation of messages
Programmes for schools and universities
Higher education
As an employer of university graduates, DGT maintains extensive links with universities and higher education institutions across the EU.
European Master's in Translation (EMT) — A network of higher-education institutions offering master's-level translation programmes. In 2009, 34 programmes from 16 Member States were selected to become members of the EMT Network for an initial period of four years. The next call for applications is scheduled for the end of EMT is a quality label for translation programmes at Master’s level. It can be given to higher education programmes that meet certain quality standards for the education of translation students.
Visiting translator scheme (VTS) — A programme allowing DGT to get in touch with language students, inform them about our activities and methods, and encourage them to come and work for us. During their 4 to 6 week-stay, DGT’s visiting translators give classes on translation, on the work of DG Translation and on languages in the European institutions. It is also a good chance for them to practise their language skills, as they are often learning the language of the country they visit.
Visits to DG Translation for students and others with a professional interest in translation. In 2009 DGT organised more than 40 visits including almost 800 external visitors.
Secondary schools
Juvenes Translatores is a translation contest for upper secondary schools in the EU. The idea is to raise the profile of language learning and the translator’s profession. Pupils from randomly selected schools across the EU compete against each other by translating texts from one EU official language into another. The third annual contest was held in November 2009; 599 schools across the EU took part, with registrations up 30 % compared to a year ago.
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35. Localisation of messages
On the one hand, we translate legal texts, where absolute consistency is a must and the original wording – often the product of a complex political negotiation – is almost sacrosanct.
On the other, the Commission produces brochures, websites and other information that can be localised to suit the local culture, the debate going on in EU countries, and the local implications of this or that policy.
In addition, more and more texts for the general public are edited even before being sent for translation into other languages. These texts may have been drafted, in English or French, by staff who are not native speakers of those languages, and may also have been revised, amended and changed by many different hands. The clarity of the message can be improved, and localised, if texts are looked over by a native-speaker editor.
Our editors check the grammatical and linguistic accuracy, and also the style and format of texts, aiming to remove stumbling blocks for translators and the final readers.
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36. The price
All the translation and interpreting services of all the EU institutions cost each EU citizen around 2 euros per year.
The cost of multilingualism adds up to less than 1% of the annual EU budget.
1/ of the EU’s total GDP.
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37. Challenges ahead for DGT
Future EU enlargements
Entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty
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38. EU enlargement
A new official language – decided during the accession negotiations
Change of organisation and tools, recruiting and integrating new staff, learning new terminology and languages … …but DGT is used to dealing with all these.
A new official language – decided during the accession negotiations
a formal request of the candidate country;
the language has to be an official language of the future Member State – according to its Constitution;
decision by unanimity of the Council of the EU, recorded in the Act of Accession.
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39. Preparing for EU enlargement
Setting up a Translation and Coordination Unit/TCU
in each future Member State
Support of DGT
technical and professional support;
freelance market in the country;
advising universities on the content of translator training;
liaising with local translators’ associations and organisations.
Recruitment of translators and interpreters
DGT translators learn the new languages
In general, to prepare for accession, each future Member State bringing in a new official EU language sets up a Translation and Coordination Unit (TCU) under one of its ministries to translate the acquis communautaire (some 100 000 pages of EU law) into its national language.
In the run-up to accession, DGT helps the new country to gear up by:
providing technical assistance, training, professional advice and support for the TCU;
setting up a Field Office in the country and liaising with it;
prospecting and developing the freelance market in the country;
encouraging and advising universities on the content of training courses for translators to make sure that their graduates meet DGT’s present and future needs;
liaising with local translators’ associations and organisations.
Every year, DGT also hosts a number of trainees from recently admitted countries.
At the same time, in-house translators are trained to translate from the new languages into the other official languages.
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40. Impact of the Lisbon Treaty on DGT
Possible increase in translation and new terminological fields, due to:
The Charter of Fundamental Rights – correspondence with EU institutions;
The extension of the co-decision to new policy areas;
Consultation of national parliaments
Citizens’ initiative
Elimination of the three-pillar structure
New fields of activity
The Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (the Lisbon Treaty), does not fundamentally change the EU’s institutional set-up. It brings in changes which could affect the use of languages in the EU institutions, but the final impact depends on the decisions implementing the Treaty and remains to be seen.
The Charter of Fundamental Rights further strengthens the existing right to write to the EU institutions and receive a reply in any of the Treaty languages.
The extension of the co-decision procedure to new policy areas is likely to increase the number of documents to be translated. This will have an impact on the Irish language department in particular, as almost exclusively documents for the co-decision procedure are translated into Irish. The renewal of the Irish derogation might be an issue.
More translations will probably also be needed in connection with consulting the national parliaments (respect of the subsidiarity principle).
The new citizens’ initiative, could also add to the need for translations, if it is based on regular dialogue and broad consultations.
Elimination of the three-pillar structure and introduction of new fields of activity (ie, common security and defence operations and the new arrangements for the High Representative for Foreign and Security Affairs) may mean that more documents will be produced by the Commission in certain areas, entailing more translation and, as is often the case, new terminology. This, however, is nothing new to translators, who are used to expanding their expertise.
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41. Working in and with DGT
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42. Job opportunities Permanent employment Temporary agent Contract agent
Freelance
Traineeship
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43. Recruitment competitions
Published in the Official Journal of the European Union (C edition) and EPSO website:
Selection procedure: 8 to 10 months
In 2010, EPSO will introduce a new procedure for selecting permanent staff for EU institutions. Ongoing competitions that were launched in will follow the old selection procedure.
What will change?
much quicker competitions with fewer steps in the procedure;
annual competitions for the most common job profiles;
competency-based testing
In addition to specific professional skills and knowledge, the following core competencies will be assessed: 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.
The reserve lists will be valid for 1 year or for a longer period (typically 3 years).
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.
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44. Competitions - Terms and conditions
National of one of the Member States with full rights as a citizen
Military service obligations – fulfilled
Full university degree in languages or another field
At least three years higher education
No professional experience is required
Age limit: none
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45. Language knowledge
Perfect command of your main language / mother tongue
Very sound knowledge of English or German or French (first source language)
Very sound knowledge of a second source language
Decided for each competition, depending on needs (English, French, German, Italian, Polish, Spanish etc.)
In addition, knowledge of any additional languages is an asset.
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46. Particular skills
People with science degrees or non-language arts degrees relevant to EU policies
Basic requirements (ability to grasp problems, communicate, resist stress)
Language skills
Thematic skills
Translation skills
“Profile for Commission translators” at
Translators profile
Commission translators are required to translate political, legal and administrative texts, and web texts, usually into their main language. These are frequently complex and encompass all the European Union's areas of activity (economic, financial, scientific, technical, etc.).
DGT is looking for 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, and 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.
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47. Steps of the competition (1)
Online registration (EPSO website only)
Computer based tests (in the target languages and in the first source language)
Verbal reasoning
Numerical reasoning
Linguistic skills test
Abstract reasoning test
Preselection In the new system, the preselection stage will feature competency-based testing (rather than knowledge-based testing). The test on EU knowledge has been removed from this stage.
EU knowledge will be assessed at a later stage, in close relation with job-related exercises during the assessment phase.
Preselection will still 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.
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48. Steps of the competition (2)
The applicants with the highest marks in the preselection tests are invited to submit a full application and to attend a series of tests in an assessment centre.
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49. Steps of the competition (3)
Assessment centre - written and oral tests take place on the same day:
2 translations (45 lines, with dictionaries)
Group exercise (FR, EN, DE)
Oral presentation (FR, EN, DE)
Structured interview (FR, EN, DE) and target language
In the assessment phase, all key competencies are tested.
The emphasis is on job-related-competency-based testing rather than factual knowledge.
This stage will comprise a full or half-day of tests, depending on the type of competition.
The assessment will be conducted in the candidate's second language (English, French or German), except for profiles requiring specific language skills.
For linguists, the assessment will be done in a more targeted manner, with a focus on their core skills, tested by:
practical linguistic tests;
a structured interview.
More information on the types of tests (including sample tests) will be published on the EPSO website.
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50. Validity of the reserve list
The reserve list remains valid for a stated period, which may be extended.
Appointments are made from the reserve list as and when posts fall vacant.
Successful candidates can send updates to their CVs, especially if they acquire new language skills.
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51. Other staff Temporary staff Contract staff
Special calls for temporary and contract staff
For more information, check regularly
Temporary staff
Duration of contracts: 2 years, renewable. 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: 6 months
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)
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52. Translation outsourcing
26 % of DGT’s total output was outsourced in 2009.
Increase in output and in outsourcing
In 2009, we sent out some pages to contractors, about 26% of our total output. None of the texts we send out are confidential, politically sensitive or urgent.
The languages DGT needs are primarily the EU's official languages.
Most commonly, these are translated into and out of English, French or German.
DGT occasionally needs translations involving other languages, e.g. Russian, Arabic and Chinese, but these account for less than 1% of outsourced translations.
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53. What do external contractors translate?
Documents of all kinds
Unless legislative, politically sensitive, confidential or very urgent documents
Certain specialised documents (law, economics, finance, agriculture, customs, taxation, telecommunications etc.)
If DGT does not have the linguistic or specialist expertise needed
Non-EU languages if no in-house capacity
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54. Translation outsourcing
The only way to become a contractor for the European Commission is:
to take part in a call for tenders and have your bid accepted
Calls for tenders for translation services are published in the Official Journal and on the DGT website:
Calls for tenders and calls for expression of interest
DGT issues 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.
Individual translations are allocated to the contractor offering the best price-quality ratio.
Framework contracts do not guarantee that the contractor will necessarily receive work.
Calls for expressions of interest are issued for lower-volume language combinations and fields.
Tenderers who meet the selection criteria are added to DGT’s 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.
Calls for other services and supplies
DGT may also issue calls for tender for computer-assisted translation, revision, editing, and supplies of dictionaries and reference books.
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55. Selection criteria for contractors
Technical and professional capacity to carry out the work assigned to them (know-how, efficiency, experience and reliability)
Minimum qualification: university degree
Information required on:
working methods
recruitment procedures
translation capacity
use of translation tools
quality assurance mechanisms
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56. Assistance to contractors
Background documents and contact person
IATE terminology database:
EUR-Lex database of EU law:
Systematic feedback
External translation unit:
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57. Traineeships (stages)
Duration: 5 months
Two rounds per year (starting in March and October)
For university graduates only
Trainees must be able to translate from two EU languages into their main language
Monthly grant
Any nationality
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58. Where can I find more information?
EU in general:
Directorate-General for Translation:
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59. Thank you for your attention!
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