Relay translation to untangle EU tongue-twister

By Martin Banks

Date: 29/04/04

The EU promises to become a flourishing enterprise for translation and interpretation, as enlargement brings an extra nine official languages to add to the existing 11.

But how will the political dialogue between member states survive this "Tower of Babel" test?

Mathematically, 20 languages give a total of 380 possible combinations (English-German, French-Czech, Finnish-Portuguese etc) and finding anyone who speaks, for example, both Greek and Estonian, or Slovene and Lithuanian, is well-nigh impossible.

To help tackle the problem, the European Parliament will use much more "relay translation", where a speech is interpreted first into one language and then into another - and perhaps into a fourth or fifth.

The need for such a system already takes away the cut and thrust of normal Parliamentary debate.

For example, when Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi likened German MEP Martin Schulz to a Nazi concentration camp guard, it took several seconds before Schulz realized he was being insulted and pulled off his headphones in disgust.

But Karl Johan Lonnroth, director-general for translation services at the European Commission, defends the right of every European to have access to decisions and documents in his or her own language. "Ours is the only organization in the world where we apply the principle where all languages are equal. The majority of Europeans only speak their mother tongue and, if they don't understand what we are doing, that will increase the democratic deficit."

In Council of Ministers' meetings or summits, interpretation is integral, while, at the Parliament, every MEP can speak or listen to the intervention of others in his or her own language.

However, there is a huge price to pay for maintaining such linguistic diversity. The Commission already has 1,300 translators, who process 1.5 million pages per year in the EU's 11 languages.

In two years, that is expected to rise to almost 2.5 million pages - and the staff, based in two enormous buildings in Brussels and Luxembourg, will almost double in size to cope with the output. The cost will rise from around €550m today to more than €800m after 1 May.

So, is it worth it? Lonnroth, a Finn, is in no doubt. "Translation costs less than €e2 per citizen, so it is less than a cup of coffee or a ticket to the cinema. I think it is worth it because it is part of democracy."

Meanwhile, it is not just the official EU institutions in which translation is fast becoming a boom industry.

All the associated lobbying firms and consultancies also require documents in their own languages and electronics suppliers are cashing in on rising demand for more sophisticated mixing desks to ensure the correct language gets channelled into each set of headphones in the Parliament's debating chambers.

Some of the 27 interpretation booths ranged around the Brussels chamber were used for the first time during the recent confirmation hearings for commissioners from accession member states.

The exercise was marked by a few hiccups as the multitude of interpreters got their wires crossed during translation.

But even though spontaneity is lost in translation - and reactions to jokes in Parliament's plenary come in waves, with the Italians laughing first and the Germans last - it is important for every EU citizen to hear his or her language in the hemicycle. And, of course, to understand what it is all about.

Article is part of a European Voice Special Report on EU Enlargement. The new Member States that joined the EU on 1 May 2004 have brought an extra nine official languages to add to the existing eleven. The European Parliament is to introduce 'relay translation' to address the problem, whereby a speech is translated first into one language and then into another (and possibly a third or fourth).