Missing out on translations

Last week I met a couple of good friends of mine who have been training over the past few months to work as freelance translators in view of the huge amount of material that needs to be translated to Maltese following Malta's entry in the European Union.

Unfortunately, their future career prospects do not presently seem as bright as they had imagined.

Back in January 2003, a European Commission delegation visited Malta to announce a call for tenders for freelance translators. The envisaged workload was considerable and prompted considerable interest among those who attended a meeting at the Old University.

This announcement triggered a process in which quite a number of people, mainly young graduates, started taking training to qualify as freelance translators in view of EU membership. Quite a substantial number of these people planned a career move into translations full time.

Freelance translation work for the EU is not paid for by the Maltese government but by the EU itself.

These people's aspirations suffered a severe setback following the rumour that the Maltese government asked for, and was granted, a three-year transition period for the translation of many of the documents. The only translations that do not fall within this transition period are the regulations adopted jointly by the European Parliament and the Council. No official announcement was made to this effect but reports in this sense which appeared on various media, including this newspaper, were not denied.

It was common knowledge that many Maltese companies and translators were planning and investing in preparation for translation work starting this year. They were also being encouraged to do so by the national authorities.

Many of those involved in this sector are questioning the fact that they were not consulted regarding this transition period, which will affect the plans of many of these persons.

Now, this transition period does not mean that Malta will be exempted from translating the documents that will be issued during these three years. In fact, documents being circulated suggest that at the end of the transitional period all acts which at that time have not already been published in the Maltese language shall also be published in our national language.

In other words, all official documents will have to be translated in any case. Thus, it is likely that in three years' time there will be a large backlog of documents awaiting translation into Maltese, over and above the daily translation needs. It seems that the reason for the derogation is the lower than expected number of Maltese translators employed in Brussels and Luxembourg who are needed to revise the work done by freelancers.

It is likely that the limited number of Maltese freelance translators would find it extremely difficult to cope with the added pressure of catching up with the backlog as well as covering the day-to-day translation needs.

Furthermore, financial pressures will force many of those who prepared themselves for the career move into translations this year to move into other activities, giving up translations for good. Those considering a return to translations after three years would have to be retrained due to lack of practice and all their hard work over this past year will have been wasted.

One solution is that if there must be a backlog of documents let it be a backlog of already translated Maltese documents which can then be revised as and when sufficient Maltese personnel are employed by the European Union. This would ensure that, during the next three years, all those in Malta who have already trained and prepared themselves for translation work can be given the necessary work practice to develop their skills so that when the derogation is lifted the local translations industry will have been able to mature.

A review of this issue is called for.

Mr Muscat is a Labour member of the European Parliament.

www.josephmuscat.com