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

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

23

23 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

Thank you for your attention!

Fiona.Graham@ec.europa.eu