Translation And Interpretation In The EU

The Role Of Translation And Interpretation In The EU

Translation plays a key role in the European Union, which has, at the moment, no less than 28 member states. The European Parliament, the European Commission, and the European Court of Justice each have an interpretation service and they are constantly recruiting staff. Working as a translator in one of the EU institutions is really rewarding both on the personal and financial level. European Union linguist have an essential role in a number of issues like EU legislation and policy development. Also, each European citizen that gets in contact with the European Commission has the right to receive a response in his own language. Needless to say how important translation is in this context, as the Commission receives thousands of messages and proposals from citizens on a daily basis.

Translation vs Interpreting

In the European Institutions, interpreting and translating are treated as two separate professions. Translators work with the written word, whereas interpreters work with the spoken word. Therefore, the European Commission has a DG for Interpretation and a DG for Translation.

Linguists may have various significant roles in the EU. The most popular is conference interpreting, which requires a minimum of three EU languages, a bachelor degree in any subject and a postgraduate qualification in conference interpreting. It is also necessary to have a good knowledge about current political affairs.

Freelancer or member of staff?

In the European Commission, you can become either a staff interpreter or a freelancer interpreter. Both positions require the same skills, but as a staff interpreter you will have a number of advantages including job security, promotion possibilities and the opportunity to work in other Commission departments later. On the other hand, being a freelance interpreter means that you will have a higher degree of freedom, as you are not bound to any institution or employer.

What is great about the EU is that it promotes a multilingualism policy, which means that EU citizens in the 28 member states can use any of the 24 European languages to communicate with the EU institutions. The EU promotes learning at least two foreign languages in order to achieve mutual understanding and efficient communication. There is a huge number of translators that work for the EU institutions at the moment and they are still recruiting professionals that are passionate about languages. A reliable website to search for jobs in this field is: http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/translation/workwithus/index_en.htm .