EU Translation Bodies and their Functions
Directorate-General for Translation
DG Translation is the European Commission's in-house translation service. It translates for Europe — working in all the official languages of the European Union.
The European Commission's in-house translation service
The Directorate-General for Translation (DG Translation) translates texts for the European Commission — into and out of the EU's 23 official languages, and a few others when needed. They deal exclusively with written texts. The spoken word is interpreted into other languages by DG Interpretation.
Translating for Europe
The main function is to:
- translate laws, policy papers, reports, correspondence and other written texts drafted by or sent to the Commission
- help the Commission communicate with the public in all EU official languages
- edit original documents drafted by Commission authors, who routinely write in languages other than their own
- advise other Commission departments on linguistic matters and on managing multilingual websites.
Local offices
The language officers:
- translate or draft press releases and other documents aimed at informing people in your country — in your language — about what the EU is doing and what its policies are
- act as a point of contact for language issues via conferences, debates, seminars, exchanges with schools, universities, language associations, freelance translators, public administrations
- provide information on job opportunities, freelance work and translator traineeships at the European Commission.

The European Commission's in-house translation service is provided by the official languages, and a few others when needed.
. It translates texts for the European Commission — into and out of the EU'sIt is based in
is to translate laws, policy papers, reports, correspondence and other written texts drafted by or sent to the and , with small outposts in other EU countries. One of its main functions . If you need information on job opportunities, freelance work and translator traineeships at the European Commission, you can get in touch with the local .

In this task, you will start a directory with important contact details that might be useful in your future professional life. Completing the tasks below should be a beginning of such a directory. Next, you can add to it whenever you think a person/agency/translation body could be useful to you. You can also include useful web pages that you come across during this course.
1. Go to the European Commission Translation website http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/translation/index_en.htm and find out where the DG Translation offices are to be found.
2. Find the contact person, address and email of the local office in the Czech Republic.
Working for the Directorate-General for Translation
- staff translator — permanent in-house staff are all recruited through open competitions, but it is also possible to join the temporary staff or contract staff instead.
- contractor — contracts are awarded through periodic public tenders, open to individual freelance translators and agencies. For practical reasons, all contractors are recruited through the tendering procedure.
- trainee — twice each year, a small number of graduate interns who wish to gain some professional translation experience are taken on.
Translator or interpreter?
The European Commission has two separate language services, DG Translation and DG Interpretation. They recruit staff independently of each other and on different criteria. Linguists at the Commission work exclusively for one or the other.
Translation Centre for the Bodies of the European Union (CdT)
The Translation Centre for the Bodies of the European Union was created in 1994 as a rational response to the translation needs of a large number of European agencies and offices.
The Council of the European Union enlarged this role in 1995, considering that it was necessary to strengthen interinstitutional cooperation in the field of translation.
An amendment to the Founding Regulation involves the active participation of the Centre in interinstitutional cooperation with a view to "rationalising working methods and making overall savings". The Centre is therefore a full member of the Interinstitutional Committee for Translation and Interpretation (ICTI) and contributes to activities in the following fields: resources, terminology, administration, external translation, new working methods and techniques, etc.
The Centre is established in Luxembourg. It is an agency governed by European public law, with legal personality. It is governed by a Management Board with representatives from all Member States, its customers and a Director.

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name the EU translation bodies
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present the basic roles of DGT and CdT
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contact the relevant person/institution in case you need more information/advice/want to apply for a job