EU about to list successful bidders

The European Commission will soon publish the names of the successful freelance translation agencies that will be responsible for translating official documents from English, French and German into Maltese, according to EU Commission sources.

The sources said the selected firms, all Maltese, had already been contacted and had a chance to signify their acceptance.

When the Translation Directorate General issued a call for tenders last year, 18 individuals and translation firms had filed a bid to the Commission's unit responsible for freelance translations.

At present, just over 20 per cent of the total output of the Translation Directorate General is done by freelance translators both inside and outside the European Union.

This amounts to roughly 250,000 pages a year, usually consisting of material which is not confidential, politically sensitive or "urgent" and which does not need to be translated in-house since it is not sensitive.

The unit would not divulge information about contracts that have been awarded until they are officially made public, probably at the end of next week.