Translation costs soar after EU enlargement
Translation and interpretation costs in the EU have shot up following the bloc’s enlargement to take on ten new member states in 2004.
The European Commission on Thursday (27 April) announced that the expenses for the translation service after enlargement rose by €259 million per year, from €541 million a year.
Meanwhile translation by all the EU institutions into the 20 official languages rose to around €800 million a year.
Out of this, around €300 million is spent on the commission’s translation service, which employs some 2,200 people.
This represents a cost to each citizen of around €1.77 per year.
The increase in EU official languages from 11 to 20 following enlargement proved to be both a political and technical headache for the EU translation services.
During the last two years, the Commission has recruited 473 full time translators. “We need 60 to 65 translators per language, which means that we still need to recruit more than 100 translators,” a commission spokesperson remarked.
The Commission spent €100 million on interpretation in 2005 or €0.21 per citizen.
A separate interpreting service for the European Parliament and the European Court of Justice cost the EU approximately €76 million in 2005.
The interpretation service is also lacking staff. “We need 80 interpreters per new language per day for all institutions,” said the commission spokesperson.
At the moment Poland has the most recruited interpreters (18) of the new member states while Malta has no interpreters at all.
Read full article at: EU Observer, 27 April 2006
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