EU Translation Bodies and their Functions

This chapter presents more information on the official translation bodies within the EU, namely the Directorate-General for Translation and the Translation Centre for the Bodies of the European Union. Their functions and goals are presented here. Working with the bodies' webpages, your task will be to find out contact details for your possible future access. If interested, you can also learn more about what it is like to work in such institutions. 

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.

With a permanent staff of around 2 500 people, DG Translation is one of the largest translation services in the world. It is based in Brussels and Luxembourg, with small outposts in other EU countries.

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 EU Commission has offices — called representations — in all the EU countries. In most of these, there is a language officer from DG Translation*.

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.
Ikona iDevice Cloze test (doplňovačka)
Read the paragraph below and fill in the missing words.

The European Commission's in-house translation service is provided by the . It translates texts for the European Commission — into and out of the EU's official languages, and a few others when needed.

It is based in and , with small outposts in other EU countries. One of its main functions

is to translate laws, policy papers, reports, correspondence and other written texts drafted by or sent to the . If you need information on job opportunities, freelance work and translator traineeships at the European Commission, you can get in touch with the local .

 

  

Ikona iDevice Tasks

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.

3. Find the link of the EU representation in the Czech Republic.

 


You may read the following article if you are interested in what kind of job opportunities the DGT has to offer. Otherwise go over to the article about CdT.

Working for the Directorate-General for Translation

As one of the biggest employers of translators anywhere in the world, the DG Translation has plenty of opportunities — for individuals and companies. As far as working for DG Translation is considered, there are several options:

  • 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.

Translators work with written text, interpreters with the spoken word. So these are two different careers.

 

Translation Centre for the Bodies of the European Union (CdT)

Page Content

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.

 

Yes/No Sentences
Check your understanding of the text by stating whether the following sentences are true or false.


The Translation Centre for the Bodies of the European Union was established to ensure the interinstitutional cooperation among European agencies and offices.

Ano Ne


As stated in the amendment to the Founding Regulation, the Interinstitutional Committee for Translation and Interpretation (ICTI) is an important part of the CdT.

Ano Ne


All EU member states are represented in the Centre's Management Board.

Ano Ne
The following website tells you more about what it is like to work for CdT. Read the article called A day in the life of a translator if interested.


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