EU to launch drive for Maltese translators

The European Commission will in a few weeks time be issuing a new call for the recruitment of Maltese translators.

At the same time, the Commission is taking immediate measures to beef up its Maltese translation pool and has formally asked the Maltese government to indicate people who could be seconded to the Commission's Directorate General for this purpose.

This was stated to The Times by Karl-Johan Lonnroth, Director General for Translation, at the European Commission.

At the moment there are only 20 Maltese translators working with the European Commission's translation services based in Luxembourg and in the Commission's office in Malta.

This is far less than the Commission has recruited from the other new member states, where for every language there are 25 - 37 translators. However, even this is thought to be on the low side.

Mr Lonnroth said that in view of the shortages, he has just initiated a process of recruiting "detached national experts" (experienced translators) from the new member states for the Directorate General for Translation.

He said that last week both his directorate and the Directorate General for Administration sent notes to the Maltese Permanent Representation to obtain candidates for selection. He said the number will depend on how many acceptable candidates the Maltese government can provide.

At the same time, Mr Lonnroth said a new call for permanent Maltese staff will be issued shortly. He said that during this week the management board of the European Personnel Selection Office will decide on the priorities and schedules, taking into account the global needs of all services, both linguistic and non-linguistic.

As a result of the EU's recent enlargement, the number of official languages rose from 11 to 20 and the Commission's work is being undermined by a shortage of translators, sources say. Only 189 translators have so far been recruited from the 10 new member states, far below the required 455. The target number of translators per language is 50 - 55.

Commission translators, based in Luxembourg, handle all written communications relevant to the launch of EU legislation, including green and white papers, reports and citizens' letters.

Only last week the Director General for DG Translation said the Commission was planning a special effort to recruit more translators, particularly in Lithuania, Latvia, Slovenia and Malta. He said the Commission would be sending teams of recruiters to these countries and would also ask member states and universities to help in finding suitable candidates.

EU translators are considered to be very well paid with salaries starting at €4,000 (Lm 1,700) per month.