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The EU border agency Frontex has been accused of exploiting staff by using a contractor who it is claimed offers interpreters an effective wage of less than €2.50 (£2.11) an hour.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/aug/14/eu-border-agency-frontex-accused-exploiting-interpreters-pay

You may already know Terminology without Borders, a collaboration project between Parliament’s Terminology Coordination Unit (TermCoord) and universities, EU/UN agencies and international civil society organisations. The aim is to provide terminology resources that meet a range of day-to-day needs of the citizens.

This collaboration reflects and supports DG TRAD’s goal of communicating with EU citizens in clear language. The main goal of the project is to enhance communication across a number of domains by tailoring terminology to people’s needs. This is achieved through several multilingual projects.

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The European Commission today announced the launch of its annual translation contest for secondary school students from across Europe, Juvenes Translatores. From midday on 2 September, schools from all EU countries will be able to register online so their students can compete with peers from other EU countries. This year, the participating teenagers will have to translate a text on the topic “Navigating in challenging times – together we are stronger”.

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Translated has been selected by the European Parliament to automatically transcribe and translate parliamentary multilingual debates in real-time, covering the 24 official languages used by the institution. The service will be provided by new software available both through fully-localized web and mobile applications, and live streaming APIs for third-party developers. It it purported to be the first human-in-the-loop speech machine translation (MT) system, and should leverage context and user feedback to adapt the output in less than one second.

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A survey of over 2,800 small and medium enterprises (SMEs) published by the European Commission revealed nearly 40% of respondents had not used a machine translation tool prior to the study. Moreover, while an overwhelming majority of SMEs still preferred human translation for business activities, such as negotiating contracts and dealing with the public sector in another country, over 70% said machine translation was nonetheless useful for their business.

Continue reading on Slator.

From the time Covid-19 was first confirmed to have reached two European Union institutions (i.e., the Defense Agency and the Council) in early March 2020, the EU stepped up teleworking. By month’s end, nearly 100% of those working at EU institutions were doing so remotely.

While such containment measures were unavoidable, so too was the fallout. Among those most badly hit were the more than 3,200 contract interpreters working for EU institutions, about 40% of whom have regular contracts, according to the Association of Conference Interpreters (AIIC), an international trade union.

Read the full piece on Slator.

While Europe, as with much of the world, focuses on mitigating the effects of the coronavirus pandemic, the European Union has decided to turn its attention temporarily away from one other initiative it was working on.

A regulation that was set to become mandatory in all EU member states on May 26, 2020, the EU Medical Devices Regulation (EU MDR), is now being delayed.

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The European Commission’s Directorate-General for Translation (DG Translation) is organising a translation contest for schools in the European Union.

DG Translation will announce the contest on its dedicated website:http://ec.europa.eu/translatores

Any school wishing to participate must respond by registering electronically on the website between 1 September and 20 October 2014 (section 1). The registration will start and end at 12.00 midday on these dates.

A random draw (see section 2) will be held to select schools to take part in the contest from among those that register.

After that, the selected schools can choose between 2 and 5 students to take part in the contest and must enter their names and language pairs in the database by 20 November 2014 at the latest. More.

See: Juvenes Translatores

The translation flow is an enormous challenge to the EU. A serious amount of workforce is engaged as permanent or temporary staff, as trainees, freelancers and contractors. It is not possible to present the official figures of the entire translation staff outside and within the EU, as competitions are constantly being organized and especially with corporate contractors there would be no way to collect the number of translators, working part- or full-time on EU translation.

The First Official and Working Languages

The first Community Regulation determining official languages was passed in 1958: Regulation number 1 determining the languages to be used by the EEC. At the time Dutch, French, German and Italian were specified as the first official and working languages of the EU.

There are two main entitlements for languages with “official and working” status, as the website of the European Commission describes:

– documents may be sent to EU institutions and a reply received in any of these languages
– EU regulations and other legislative documents are published in the official and working languages, as is the Official Journal. More.

See: One Europe

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A new study, Terminology for the European Union. The Irish Experience: The GA IATE Project, compiled by Fiontar, DCU and published by Cló Iar-Chonnacht, is now available to the public. This bi-lingual (Irish and English) publication offers a comprehensive overview of the work of terminology accomplished through the GA IATE Project.

This initiative was established in 2007 by the Irish government, in collaboration with Fiontar, the Department of Arts, Heritage and Gaeltacht and the European Institutions, following the accession of Irish as an official EU language. Continue reading →

See: TermCoord

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(…) Treaty translation is big business today. The European Union, for example, spends an estimated €300m annually on translating between its 23 official languages. (While this is a big chunk of money, it’s less than 1% of the EU’s annual budget.) Three of those—English, French, and German—are working languages in most meetings. In reality, English (to the chagrin of the French) is most commonly used. But because each document must be faithfully recreated in each of the EU’s 23 languages, creating authentic versions can be expensive and time-consuming. Thankfully, most problems are dealt with in procès-verbal, a way to introduce technical corrections to treaties without revisiting negotiations. It might still delay matters. Last year, for example, Ireland’s ratification of an EU treaty was delayed by grammatical errors in the Irish version. There are obvious trade-offs to language equality, but the EU has calculated that the delays and costs are worth it.

The United Nations should revisit its own calculations. Its has just six official and two working languages. The task of translation here in Geneva, home to most UN organs, is thus decidedly simpler. The UN’s official languages are geographically diverse—combined, native speakers of Arabic, English, French, Mandarin, Russian and Spanish number over 2.2 billion. But the two working languages are bound to tradition. The persistence of French is attributed to its history as the “language of diplomacy”. In the hallways of the New York headquarters, English is (naturally) favored, and French is preferred in Geneva. Treaties registered with the United Nations Treaty Series are always translated into French and English. Documents are always provided in French and English. This city’s Geneva Conventions, written in equally authentic French and English versions, laid part of the groundwork for the international system. More.

See: Johnson

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This report is a study of the mechanisms by which the status of translators is signalled in the European Union in 2011-12, with comparisons with the United States, Canada and Australia. The report is based on previous surveys and input from some 100 experts and informants. It offers sociological and economic modelling of the way signalling mechanisms affect markets in this field, with specific reference to academic qualifications, professional certifications, membership of associations and years of experience. The report proposes criteria for actions that might be taken to enhance the signalling of status. Status is understood as the presumed value of expert skills, rather than the skills themselves. An individual or group with high status is ideally attributed trustworthiness, prestige, authority, higher pay and a degree of professional exclusivity. However, when the signals of status are weak or confusing, those values are low, market disorder results, and good translators may leave the market. The process of professionalisation can then be seen as the production of efficient signals of status such that good translators stay in the market.

See: EU Bookshop

Subscribe to the translation news daily digest here. See more translation news.

The use of freelance translators and proofreaders by the Directorate-General for translation is very significant in view of the workload and available resources.

The amount of translation assigned to freelance translators is between 20% and 25% of the total volume.

The Court of Justice concludes with selected persons one-year framework contracts which are renewable three times. These contracts result from negotiated procedures after publication in the Official Journal of contract notices for certain language combinations.

Any person who wishes, on a freelance basis, to undertake translations for the language combinations indicated (see, as appropriate, Annex B to each notice) must lodge a request to participate in the corresponding negotiated procedure, using the specific registration form.

The contract notices, which alone are authentic, are accessible below:

TRANSLATION

2013/S 047-075057	Сключване на рамкови договори за превод на юридически текстове от някои официални езици на Европейския съюз на български.
2013/S 047-075053	Celebración de contratos marco para la traducción al español de textos jurídicos a partir de determinadas lenguas oficiales de la Unión Europea
2013/S 047-075041	Uzavření rámcových smluv na překlad právních textů z některých úředních jazyků Evropské unie do českého jazyka
2013/S 047-075054	Indgåelse af flere rammeaftaler vedrørende oversættelse af juridiske tekster fra bestemte af Den Europæiske Unions officielle sprog til dansk
2013/S 047-075043	Abschluss von Rahmenverträgen für die Übersetzung juristischer Texte und die Revision von Übersetzungen solcher Texte aus bestimmten Amtssprachen der Europäischen Union ins Deutsche
2013/S 047-075045	Raamlepingud juriidiliste tekstide tõlkimiseks Euroopa Liidu teatud ametlikest keeltest eesti keelde
2013/S 047-075050	Σύναψη συμβάσεων-πλαισίων για τη μετάφραση νομικών κειμένων από ορισμένες επίσημες γλώσσες της Ευρωπαϊκής Ενώσεως προς τα ελληνικά
2013/S 047-075048	Conclusion of framework contracts for the translation of legal texts from certain official languages of the European Union into English
2013/S 047-075037	Conclusion de contrats-cadres pour la traduction de textes juridiques de certaines langues officielles de l’Union européenne vers le français
2013/S 047-075049	Conclusione di contratti-quadro per la traduzione di testi giuridici da determinate lingue ufficiali dell’Unione europea in italiano.
2013/S 047-075039	Pamatlīgumu par juridisku tekstu tulkošanu no noteiktām Eiropas Savienības oficiālajām valodām uz latviešu valodu noslēgšana
2013/S 047-075052	Bendrųjų sutarčių sudarymas dėl teisinių tekstų vertimų raštu iš kai kurių Europos Sąjungos oficialiųjų kalbų į lietuvių kalbą
2013/S 047-075040	Jogi szövegeknek az Európai Unió egyes hivatalos nyelveiről magyar nyelvre történő fordítására irányuló keretszerződések megkötése
2013/S 047-075056	Konklużjoni ta’ kuntratti qafas għat-traduzzjoni ta’ testi ġuridiċi minn ċerti lingwi uffiċjali tal-Unjoni Ewropea lejn il-Malti
2013/S 047-075038	Sluiten van raamcontracten voor de vertaling van juridische teksten vanuit een aantal officiële talen van de Europese Unie naar het Nederlands
2013/S 047-075046	Zawarcie umów ramowych o tłumaczenie tekstów prawniczych z niektórych języków urzędowych Unii Europejskiej na język polski
2013/S 047-075047	Celebração de contratos-quadro para a tradução de textos jurídicos a partir de certas línguas oficiais da União Europeia para português
2013/S 047-075055	Încheierea de contracte-cadru pentru traducerea unor texte juridice din anumite limbi oficiale ale Uniunii Europene în limba română.
2013/S 047-075036	Uzavretie rámcových zmlúv na preklad právnych textov z niektorých úradných jazykov Európskej únie do slovenského jazyka
2013/S 047-075044	Sklenitev okvirnih pogodb za prevajanje pravnih besedil iz nekaterih uradnih jezikov Evropske unije v slovenščino.
2013/S 047-075051	Puitesopimusten tekeminen oikeudellisten tekstien kääntämisestä tietyistä Euroopan unionin virallisista kielistä suomeen
2013/S 047-075042	Ramkontrakt för översättning av juridiska texter från vissa av Europeiska unionens officiella språk till svenska.

Requests to participate must be sent to the address specified in the contract notice relating to the candidate’s target language.

The time-limit for receipt of requests to participate is also specified in each notice. Nevertheless, as regards permanent lots (language combinations) for legal translation, the contracts remain open in order to allow new operators to enter at any time. Requests to participate submitted after the time-limit may therefore be evaluated, provided that the maximum number of contractors for the lot has not been reached.

See: Curia

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The General Medical Council will be given new powers to test language skills after a series of scandals in which patients died after being treated by doctors who trained overseas and failed to understand basic medical terms.

The GMC will be allowed to test the language skills doctors from other European Union countries for the first time since 1983 – and if they fail, refuse to let them practise in Britain. More >>

This report is a study of the mechanisms by which the status of translators is signalled in the European Union in 2011-12, with comparisons with the United States, Canada and Australia. The report is based on previous surveys and input from some 100 experts and informants. It offers sociological and economic modelling of the way signalling mechanisms affect markets in this field, with specific reference to academic qualifications, professional certifications, membership of associations and years of experience. The report proposes criteria for actions that might be taken to enhance the signalling of status. Status is understood as the presumed value of expert skills, rather than the skills themselves. An individual or group with high status is ideally attributed trustworthiness, prestige, authority, higher pay and a degree of professional exclusivity. However, when the signals of status are weak or confusing, those values are low, market disorder results, and good translators may leave the market. The process of professionalisation can then be seen as the production of efficient signals of status such that good translators stay in the market.

See: EU bookshop

The lower house of the German parliament, the Bundestag, sending dozens of European Union documents back to Brussels, slowing down crucial political work, because MPs can’t make any sense of the translations.

According to a report in Tuesday’s Saarbrücker Zeitung newspaper, the Bundestag has had to send over a hundred important EU documents back in this legislative period alone, because its committee members could not work out what they were supposed to say.

Some EU documents are now seen as a “consultation obstacle” – and this at a time when parliamentarians across Europe are fighting to tackle Europe’s debt crisis.

The flawed translations have apparently slowed the work of the interior, finance, budgetary, economic, and defence committees in the German parliament. The paper also says that German versions of the documents are sometimes missing altogether.
The problem has apparently been a long-term one. Gunther Krichbaum, chairman of the Bundestag’s Europe committee, told the paper that the European Commission had been promising a new “translation strategy” for a long time, “but nothing has happened.”  More.

See: The Local

Also see: Eurocracy: lost in translation

The European Medicines Agency publishes new versions of controlled vocabularies used to comply with Article 57 (2) requirements on submission of information on medicines

The European Medicines Agency has published a set of updated versions of Extended EudraVigilance product report message (XEVMPD) controlled vocabularies. These vocabularies support marketing authorisation holder compliance with Article 57(2) of the 2010 pharmacovigilance legislation, which requires marketing-authorisation holders to submit information to the Agency electronically on all medicines for human use authorised in the European Union by 2 July 2012.

The controlled vocabularies will be updated regularly to improve the standardisation of the terminology used in the electronic submission of medicinal product information to the Agency.

See: European Medicines Agency

DGTRAD, the Directorate General for Translation of the European Parliament,  is a unit that networks about 100 terminologists spread across the various language units in the European Union.

European Union legislation is drafted in 23 official languages. Translation is an integral part of the process of elaborating and adopting legal acts. Thousands of translators in the European institutions cover 506 language combinations, a mechanism which must be regularly brought into line with constantly evolving language-related issues. The main aims of DGTRAD are to facilitate terminology research and production.

The terminology research and the repositories which are the result of intensive work by DGTRAD are also used to improve the quality of the Machine Translation (MT) systems used by the EU. In 2011, the European Parliament’s translation units translated over 1.5 million pages in all languages. Renato Beninatto wrote an excellent post last month about MT in the EU which describes some of the work that the EU is doing in that field. Clearly MT is an important topic at the EU as the demand for translation services increases.

Here are some great online resources that are provided by the EU:

• IATE (Interactive Terminology for Europe). This website incorporates all of the terminology databases of the EU’s translation services into one searchable resource. Provides online translation of terms across 24 languages.
• The DGTRAD website provides a wide range of glossaries which can be useful to translators and anyone who is working with the EU.
• Translation 2.0: Multilingual Terminology Search Engine
• EMM News Explorer: major news stories in various languages including tools that allow comparing how the same events have been reported in different languages.

See: GTS BLog

European Union governments have been negotiating the issue of a single EU patent for decades. Taking advantage of the fast-track procedure – which came in with the Lisbon Treaty and allows a group of countries to go ahead with EU legislation even when not all 27 member states agree – Ministers met Monday and hammered out a so-called “general approach,” which is the governments’ position on a European Commission legislative proposal that will create a single patent for the EU. I have discussed this matter previously in this post about the creation of a European patent system.

Italy and Spain fear discrimination because patents would be filed only in English, French or German. The two countries have filed a legal challenge with the European Court of Justice (ECJ), arguing that the new enhanced co-operation procedure should not be used to bring in the patent system. In fact, efforts to get an EU-wide agreement on patents have been blocked for many years by language disputes and the lack of unanimity.

At the moment, the European patent requires validation in each member state, and a full translation of the patent in the official national language. The new single patent system is expected to be in place by 2013, and should cut the current €32,000 it costs to get a patent across the 27 EU countries (€23,000 only for translations) to €2,500 for the 25 countries participating in the project (all but Italy and Spain), and further down to €680 at the end of a 12-year transitional period. In the U.S., a patent filing costs about €1,850.

Implications for the Language Services Industry

This is not good news for LSPs, but companies have been preparing for sometime. In fact, RWS Holdings, the biggest patent translations company in Europe, mentioned in its 2010 Annual Report that “The thrust of our acquisition strategy since 2005 has been to target technical translation businesses which have zero exposure to any developments in the patent field.”

Lingtech, the Danish company that developed machine translation solutions for patents into Scandinavian languages, saw its revenues dwindle since the London Agreement and was recently acquired by Kommunicera AB.

But not all is gloom.

• Translations will still be required between English, French, and German, and in some cases into each European language. 
• The expectation is that the number of patents registered in Europe will increase because of the cost savings. So the reduction in number of translations could be offset by the increase in the number of documents filed.
• Asian countries file more and more patents every year. Those patents will need to be translated into European languages for filing. This means that there might be also a shift in the language pairs required for patent translations.

Poor foreign language skills among the British workforce are leaving the UK under-represented in European Union institutions, an official has said.

The head of the European Parliament’s London information office has warned of a “serious problem”.

Only 5% of the jobs in the European Parliament and Commission are taken by British workers – although the UK contains 12% of the EU’s population.

The government is aiming to reverse a decline in language study in schools.

On Monday, for the first time, the European Parliament and European Union are holding an open day for UK school leavers and graduates encouraging them to think of a career in Brussels or Strasbourg.

Michael Shackleton, who runs the European Parliament’s communications operation in the UK, said: “People like me are coming to retirement and its very clear there are not enough people to take our places.

“I think it matters at all levels of the institutions not just at the highest levels – having people from British backgrounds adds to the mix, it’s really important if you want to influence what is going on.”

“The balance of the use of language has been in favour of English, but to understand what people are thinking about you also have to get a sense of them and how they see the world,” he added.

‘Renaissance’

Since the last government made learning foreign languages optional in England from the age of 14 there has been a decline in the numbers of students studying them to GCSE level.

The proportion of students taking language GCSEs has fallen from 61% in 2005 to 44% in 2010.

In 2001, about 347,000 pupils sat GCSE French, but this has fallen by nearly half to fewer than 178,000 in 2010.

There is a similar pattern for German language studies, with more than 135,000 sitting the exam in 2001, but only about 70,000 in 2010.

However, the coalition government has introduced the English Baccalaureate, which will be awarded to students gaining good GCSE passes in English, maths, two science qualifications, a foreign or ancient language, and history or geography.

The number of pupils gaining the EBacc will be included in schools’ league tables data, and demand for language teachers has increased, as institutions have moved to boost baccalaureate subjects.

At Hendon School, in north London, a specialist language school which is also a mixed ability comprehensive drawing children from a wide range of different communities, every child has to study French, Spanish or German – and Japanese is offered at GCSE and A-level.

Deputy head teacher Rebecca Poole said she expected to see “a renaissance” in language learning and language teaching.

“In my opinion that can only be an excellent thing,” she said. “I think there will be a lot of jobs advertised out there.”

However, in January, the education watchdog Ofsted warned that language lessons were “weak” in too many secondary schools in England.

And concerns about the decline are also shared in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, where foreign language learning to the age of 16 is also not compulsory – although all pupils in Wales must study Welsh to that age.

See: BBC News