Transcript Slide 1

Directorate-General for Translation
The Directorate-General for
Translation at the European
Commission
Brussels
Communication and
Information Unit
EUROPEAN COMMISSION
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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Multilingualism in the world
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What is multilingualism?
1) several languages spoken within a
geographical area;
2) the ability to master several languages;
3) a policy which requires an organisation/
a company/an institution to use several
languages for communication
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The world’s top 10 languages – native speakers
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Linguistic diversity
1400
1200
India
Population
1000
800
600
Indonesia
400
Brazil
Nigeria
Congo DR
200
0
Australia
Cameroon
Mexico
-200
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European
Union
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Papua New
Guinea
Languages mean jobs!
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Directorate-General
for Translation
in a multilingual European Union
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EU official languages
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Surviving without translation
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Where does DGT come in?
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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
Translation Centre
110
Court of Auditors
100
Court of Justice
620
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Interinstitutional
Committee
on
Translation
and
Interpretation
(ICTI-CITI)
European
Investment Bank
30
Committee of the Regions and
European Economic and
Social Committee
350
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European Central Bank
70
We translate from and into all official EU
languages...
CS
DA
DE
ES
SK HU
IT
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SL
EL RO
BG
FI
EN
MT
PL
PT
GA
ET
FR
SV
LT
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NL
LV
…and on all subject areas
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Our clients
 We serve the citizens of Europe
 Translation is part of democracy
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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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The benefits of translation
 Good translation
contributes to the
legislative
process
 Translation and
editing contribute to
better regulation
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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.
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Types of languages
 Official languages = 23
• Irish derogation





Treaty languages = 23
Working languages = 23
Procedural languages = 3 - EN, FR, DE
Non-procedural languages = 20
Additional languages
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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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Organisation
Audit
Assistants
Director General
Communication
and information
Adviser
Legal, interinstitutional and
international affairs
LUX
Directorate A
Translation
Danish LD
BRU
Directorate B
Translation
Irish
Translation Centre
LUX
Italian LD
D1 - Field Offices
and relations with
representations
R1
Human resources
S1
Demand
management
D2 - WEB
translation
R2
Financial resources
S2
External translation
D3 - Library,
terminology and
translation support
R3
Informatics
Spanish LD
Finnish LD
French LD
Portuguese LD
Estonian LD
German LD
Greek LD
Lithuanian LD
Latvian LD
Bulgarian LD
Romanian LD
Directorate R
Resources
Directorate S
Translation strategy
and multilingualism
S3
Multilingualism and
translation studies
Slovenian LD
D4 - Editing
Maltese LD
R4
Training
R5 - Internal
administrative
matters
Czech LD
Polish LD
Slovakian LD
Name of event/occasion
BRU
Directorate D
Transversal
linguistic services
English LD
Dutch LD
LUX
Directorate C
Translation
Swedish LD
Hungarian LD
BRU
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S4
Evaluation and
analysis
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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Our products
 Box from
http://www.cc.cec/translation/index_en.htm
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Breakdown across products and services
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Trends in translation at the Commission
(breakdown by source language)
 In 2009, DGT’s total output was about 1.6 million translated pages.
2000000
1800000
TOTAL
1600000
1400000
EN
1200000
1000000
800000
600000
400000
OTHER
FR
DE
200000
0
20
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00
01
20
20
02
20
03
20
04
20
05
20
06
20
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07
8
0
20
09
20
Breakdown by target language (2009)
Translation production in 2009 by target language (number of pages)
250.000
200.000
150.000
100.000
50.000
th
er
A
O
G
M
T
ET
SL
H
U
LV
SK
D
A
LT
SV
Fl
C
S
B
G
R
O
PL
EL
PT
N
L
IT
ES
D
E
FR
EN
0
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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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Electronic translation tools
 Terminology
• Electronic dictionaries,
glossaries, etc.
• IATE (public)
• EUR-Lex (public)
• Quest Metasearch
• Dossier Manager
• DGT Vista + SG Vista
Name of event/occasion
 Translation tools
• Translator's
Workbench/Euramis
• Machine translation
• Voice recognition
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EUR-Lex
 Repository of the EU law
 Multilingual search
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IATE
(Interactive Terminology for Europe)
 Terminology database of all the EU institutions
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IATE – high interest
 Peaks of more than 300 000 queries per day, or above 7 million
per month.
Nb of requests per month
8000000
7000000
6000000
5000000
4000000
Nb of requests
3000000
2000000
1000000
ja
nv
-0
fé 8
vr
m 08
ar
s08
av
r0
m 8
ai
-0
ju 8
in
-0
8
ju
il0
ao 8
ût
-0
se 8
pt
-0
8
oc
t0
no 8
v08
dé
c0
ja 8
nv
-0
9
fé
vr
m 09
ar
s09
av
r0
m 9
ai
-0
9
ju
in
-0
9
ju
il0
ao 9
ût
-0
se 9
pt
-0
9
oc
t09
no
v09
dé
c09
0
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Quality assurance
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

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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
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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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What else do we do?
 Relations with universities
 Visiting translators scheme
 Juvenes Translatores
 Localisation of messages
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Localisation of messages
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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.
 1/10 000 of the EU’s total GDP.
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Challenges ahead for DGT
 Future EU enlargements
 Entry into force of the Lisbon
Treaty
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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.
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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
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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
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Working in and with DGT
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Job opportunities



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
Permanent employment
Temporary agent
Contract agent
Freelance
Traineeship
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Recruitment competitions
 Recruitment competition
 Published in the Official Journal of the
European Union (C edition) and EPSO
website: http://europa.eu.epso/
 Selection procedure: 8 to 10 months
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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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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.)
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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
http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/translation/workwithus/staff/pr
ofile/index_en.htm
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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
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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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Steps of the competition (3)
 Assessment centre - written and oral tests take
place on the same day:
•
•
•
•
Name of event/occasion
2 translations (45 lines, with dictionaries)
Group exercise (FR, EN, DE)
Oral presentation (FR, EN, DE)
Structured interview (FR, EN, DE) and target
language
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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.
Name of event/occasion
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Other staff
 Temporary staff
 Contract staff
• Special calls for temporary and contract staff
• For more information, check regularly
http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/translation/workwithus/index_
en.htm
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Translation outsourcing
 26 % of DGT’s total output was outsourced in 2009.
2000000
1800000
1600000
Pages
1400000
1200000
External
1000000
800000
600000
Internal
400000
200000
0
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
Year
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2006
2007
2008
2009
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
Name of event/occasion
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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:
• http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/translation/workwithus/contrac
tor/index_en.htm
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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:
•
•
•
•
•
Name of event/occasion
working methods
recruitment procedures
translation capacity
use of translation tools
quality assurance mechanisms
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Assistance to contractors
 Background documents and contact person
 IATE terminology database:
http://iate.europa.eu
 EUR-Lex database of EU law:
http://eur-lex.europa.eu
 Systematic feedback
 External translation unit:
[email protected]
Name of event/occasion
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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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Where can I find more information?
 EU in general:
http://ec.europa.eu
 Directorate-General for Translation:
http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/translation
Name of event/occasion
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Thank you for your attention!
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