Translating for the European Union Institutions

Emma Wagner, Svend Bech, Jesús Martínez

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN: 9781905763924
• eBook ISBN: 9781317642091
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Linguistics
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

The institutions of the European Union employ hundreds of translators. Why? What do they do? What sort of translation problems do they have to tackle? Has the language policy of the European Union been affected by the recent inclusion of new Member States?

This book answers all those questions. Written by three experienced translators from the European Commission, it aims to help general readers, translation students and freelance translators to understand the European Union institutions and their work. Although it deals with written rather than spoken translation, much of the information it gives will be of interest to interpreters too.

This second edition has been updated to reflect the new composition of the EU and changes to recruitment procedures.

1. Why we translate

During its brief history, the European Union has grown greatly in terms of the area it covers, its political significance and its institutions. The founding Treaties of 1951 and 1957 have been revised several times: in 1987 (the Single European Act), in 1992 (the Treaty on European Union, signed at Maastricht) and in 1997 (Treaty of Amsterdam). In 2001 further changes were made by the Treaty of Nice, and then most recently by the Treaty of Lisbon, signed in 2007.

The ultimate goal of the European Union is ‘an ever closer union among the peoples of Europe, in which decisions are taken as openly as possible and as closely as possible to the citizen’ (Article 1 of the Treaty on European Union). It aims to promote peace, sustainable development, balanced economic growth and social progress, to establish an economic and monetary union and to uphold European values on the international scene.

One language-related provision of the Treaty on European Union, laid down in Article 3, is that

‘[The Union] shall respect its rich cultural and linguistic diversity, and shall ensure that Europe’s cultural heritage is safeguarded and enhanced.’

and another provision with a language impact is this one in Article 4:

‘The Union shall respect the equality of Member States before the Treaties as well as their national identities’.

In line with these Treaties, the European Union institutions exist to serve the EU and its citizens, a community of peoples with a fascinating variety of customs, characteristics – and languages.

Multilingualism: the principle

In the context of the European Union, the word ‘multilingualism’ is used in two ways. It refers to:

(1) personal multilingualism (the ability to speak and use several languages) and

(2) institutional multilingualism (meaning the policy of ‘equal rights for all official languages’).

Personal multilingualism and language learning are also promoted by the EU in various ways, but it is the EU’s institutional multilingualism, resulting from the above-mentioned Treaty obligation to respect the equality of all Member States, that necessitates the major translation operation which we describe in this book.

Equal status for the official languages goes to the heart of what the European Union is all about. Language is a part of national and personal identity. There has never been any intention to impose a sort of artificial ‘Euro-identity’ – far from it: the languages of Europe are part of its immense and diverse cultural heritage, and they should be cherished.

At the outset in the 1950s there were six Member States: Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. Between them they had four official languages: Dutch, French, German and Italian.

Now, after the most recent accessions in 2007, the European Union has 27 Member States:

Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom.

and 23 official languages:

Bulgarian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Irish, Italian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Maltese, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish and Swedish.

It is fair to ask why we need so many official languages. Why can’t we manage with a smaller number, like other international organisations such as the United Nations, UNESCO, NATO and the OECD? The answer is to be found in the word ‘Union’ (previously ‘Community’), which denotes a much deeper level of integration than the intergovernmental cooperation taking place in organisations like the UN. The ambition of the European Union is to be a ‘Union of Citizens’, where every citizen has the right to participate in the EU’s democratic life. Its institutions produce legislation that is directly applicable to all citizens in all the Member States and must therefore be available in their official languages.

Equality before the law

The need for legal certainty is the first reason why translation plays such a large part in the activities of the European institutions.

Article 288 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union describes the different types of legal act produced by the European Union institutions:

‘To exercise the Union’s competences, the institutions shall adopt regulations, directives, decisions, recommendations and opinions.
A regulation shall have general application. It shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States.
A directive shall be binding, as to the result to be achieved, upon each Member State to which it is addressed, but shall leave to the national authorities the choice of form and methods.
A decision shall be binding in its entirety. A decision which specifies those to whom it is addressed shall be binding only on them.
Recommendations and opinions shall have no binding force.’

As Article 288 shows, the different types of instrument are binding in different ways. Regulations are binding in their entirety and directly applicable in all the Member States; Decisions are usually binding; Directives are binding, as to the result to be achieved, upon each Member State to which they are addressed. The precise methods of achieving the aims of a Directive are left to the Member States (shall leave to the national authorities the choice of form and methods).

The important point is that most of these legal acts are binding in some way, and that is why they have to be translated. It is simply a matter of democracy. It is a legal obligation and a democratic necessity to present EU legislation to European citizens in their own language in order to guarantee equality before the law. Ignorance of the law is no defence, so the law cannot be imposed in an incomprehensible foreign language. Scottish whisky distillers, Danish civil servants, German industrialists, Bulgarian doctors, Estonian students, French wine growers, Italian car designers and the rest must always have access to the European legislation affecting them. And they must have access to it in their own language.

The means of public access to EU law — and the place where many of our translations are published — is the Official Journal of the European Union (known as the ‘Official Journal of the European Communities’ prior to the Nice Treaty of December 2000). The Official Journal is the only periodical published every working day in 22 of the official languages of the European Union (or in 23 languages when Irish is required). It is produced by the Publications Office of the European Union (for details see the Publications Office’s website http://publications.europa.eu/index_en.htm). Legislation can also be accessed free of charge on EUR-Lex at http://eur-lex.europa.eu/.

But the final versions of legislation published in the Official Journal and on EUR-Lex are just the tip of the iceberg. Every legal act published is the outcome of a long process of discussion and negotiation. Proposals made by the Commission are normally based on cooperation with outside contacts — committees of national government experts, representatives of the private sector, universities and economic and social interests — whose opinions are required before any decision can be taken.

Translation is needed at all the many stages in the preparation of EU legislation:

• preparing the working papers, which often include a substantial amount of technical documentation;

• examining the draft versions, which require extensive consultation;

• putting together the final text, which represents a commitment by the Commission and is likely to reach a broad spectrum of readers;

• preparing the written information that the Commission is required to circulate at all levels once its proposal has been adopted;

• discussing and amending the proposal in the European Parliament and Council prior to finalisation.

Citizenship of the Union

The European Union institutions are not there just to churn out regulations. Article 20 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union lists the rights of citizens of the Union, including:

‘the right to petition the European Parliament, to apply to the European Ombudsman, and to address the institutions and advisory bodies of the Union in any of the Treaty languages and to obtain a reply in the same language’.

Article 24 of the same Treaty also specifies that:

‘Every citizen of the Union may write to any of the institutions, bodies, offices or agencies referred to in this Article or in Article 13 of the Treaty on European Union in one of the languages mentioned in Article 55(1) of the Treaty on European Union and have an answer in the same language’ [Article 13 lists the institutions; Article 55(1) names the official languages].

This provision was introduced by the Amsterdam Treaty in 1999. It aims to give equal treatment to all European citizens regardless of their mother tongue. It means that every member of the European public is entitled to write to any of the institutions, for whatever reason, in the language of their choice – as long as it is one of the official languages – and to receive a reply in the same language.

Another provision introduced by the Amsterdam Treaty, and now appearing in Article 15 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, was:

‘Any citizen of the Union […] shall have a right of access to documents of the Union institutions, bodies, offices and agencies […]’

This also has obvious implications for translation; accessibility implies providing a version in a language the citizen can understand.

The number of official languages has grown gradually to the present number of 23 from the original four (Dutch, French, German and Italian, the languages of the original six Member States). In 1973 Denmark, Ireland and the United Kingdom joined, so Danish and English were added; in 1981 Greece joined, adding Greek; in 1986 Portugal and Spain brought Portuguese and Spanish, and in 1995, Austria, Finland and Sweden joined, bringing two more official languages: Finnish and Swedish. Then came the major enlargement of the EU in 2004, to include Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia, bringing nine more languages. The 2004 enlargement was completed in 2007, with the accession of Bulgaria and Romania, and the addition of two more languages.

Ever since Ireland joined the EU in 1973, Irish has been a ‘Treaty language’ (meaning that the Treaties are always translated into it) and therefore a procedural language of the European Court of Justice. But on 1 January 2007 it became a full official language. It was agreed that translation into Irish would be restricted to important documents (legislation and correspondence with the public). This agreement will be reviewed every five years.

When new Member States join, the Treaties are translated into the new official languages, and these new language versions are as ‘authentic’ (legally valid) as the four initial versions. That is why the Treaties now exist in 23 language versions.

People often ask why the official languages do not include all the languages spoken in the European Union. Why don’t speakers of Welsh, Basque, Catalan and Breton have the same rights to use their languages for dealings with the institutions? This is a fair question, but the answer is that the ‘official language’ of each Member State is the one it has stipulated during the membership negotiations. The choice is not dictated by the EU institutions. The Member States themselves have taken a political decision to keep the number of official languages within limits in order to minimise administrative difficulties and costs. That is why the 27 Member States have only 23 official languages between them: because several of them share one or more official languages with a neighbouring country: Austria and Germany share German, Ireland and the United Kingdom share English, and so on. (See also Article 8 of Council Regulation No 1, quoted below.)

Legal basis of multilingualism

The Treaty of Paris, which set up the European Coal and Steel Community in 1951, did not mention multilingualism; this first Treaty was authentic only in French. Nor did language matters and the policy of multilingualism feature in the two Treaties of Rome signed in 1957, setting up the European Economic Community and the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom). All we had in those Treaties was a brief provision to the effect that:

‘The rules governing the languages of the institutions of the Community shall (…) be determined by the Council, acting unanimously.’
(Article 217 of the EC Treaty.)

So, when the Treaties of Rome entered in...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Introduction
• 1. Why we translate
• 2. The EU institutions: their roles and their translation services
• 3. How to get in
• 4. What we translate
• 5. Problems
• 6. What the job involves
• 7. EU enlargement and its impact on translation
• 8. Translator profiles
• Annex 1
• Annex 2
• Works cited
• Index