languages in action translating for the european commission
DESCRIPTION
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) - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
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
2323 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!