Translation of EU rules lagging behind

Readers of The Times yesterday had a field day passing on via e-mail and telephone to friends and acquaintances the howlers in the Maltese translation of the EU draft constitution.

Probably the biggest was the literal translation of 'advisory bodies' as igsma tal-pariri.

The translation was presented to the EU summit taking place in Greece.

Many readers jumped to the conclusion that the translation was the work of the Translation and Law Drafting Unit in Malta, which has been commissioned to carry out translation of EU laws and regulations by the government.

But an irate Vanni Bruno, who heads the unit, pointed out that the Translation and Law Drafting Unit was not in any way involved in the preparation of the translation.

"On Thursday night, without even knowing the extent of the mistakes contained in the translation, I was contacted by an official of the Office of the Prime Minister to request my assistance, as head of the unit, to revise the whole document and prepare it in a corrected text by next Tuesday. We are currently engaged on this task".

About one month ago, the unit was alerted by Brussels that the draft constitution would have to be translated into Maltese.

The unit was asked to supply Brussels with the name or names of translators who would take on the job freelance and be paid directly by Brussels.

"We submitted the name of one of our best translators but heard nothing of it until we contacted the EU to enquire about the situation."

The EU informed the unit that they had commissioned somebody themselves to do the translation.

The freelance translators who prepared the translation were appointed directly by the EU.

Moreover, those translators did not form part of the Translation and Law Drafting Unit, Dr Bruno said.

Dr Bruno said tenders were issued a few months ago for Maltese translators to provide their services to the EU for the translation of documents into Maltese after accession.

"It was specifically stated by the EU officials who visited Malta that the tender documents would have to be drawn up in Maltese and that five mistakes would automatically disqualify the tender.

"One wonders, if the standard of Maltese of the people who are examining these tenders is anything near to the standard shown by the translator/s of the EU convention, appointed by the EU - are they really qualified to judge?"

On the local situation, Dr Bruno said the tempo of translation from the Malta side had slowed down because freelance translators, revisers and a number of law firms, to whom translation work had been farmed out, have not been paid since January.

The unit started operating in 2001, but by June last year payments from the Ministry of Justice had started to dry up, with payments being effected months after they were due.

There are about 40 translators and 10 revisers who are each owed sums ranging from Lm1,000 to Lm6,000. The money owed to several legal firms runs into tens of thousands.

The rules and regulations of the EU consist of 120,000 pages. To these, one must add all those EU laws that will come into force by April 30, 2004.

So far 90,000 pages have been translated, of which only 22,000 have been revised. Once pages are verified as correct by the unit, they are forwarded to Brussels.

"I cannot understand the attitude of the government over this matter. The government has to decide whether it wants to go ahead with this task," complained Dr Bruno.

"The unit has passed on more work to the better translators and revisers and the irony of it all is that because they are better, they are the ones suffering most, financially.

"We have stopped chasing people to send in work because everyone has to be paid for what they do," Dr Bruno said.

When contacted, Malta-EU Information Centre acting head Edward Demicoli said Malta and the EU have a shared obligation to translate into Maltese the EU rules and regulations and any other laws that the EU may enact.

In fact, the EU commission had set up a translation unit in Luxembourg and issued applications for the appointment of translators.

"If by May 1, next year, the translation of the documents is not completed, it does not, in any way, jeopardise the position of Maltese as an official language of the EU," he added.

Dr Bruno's consultancy contract from the Ministry of Justice to run the unit expired at the beginning of this month. He was asked to renew the contract but because of the financial situation has only agreed to continue on a month-by-month basis.

While some acceding countries have teams of up to 70 full-timers, the unit in Malta employs only three full-timers.

Dr Bruno said that even if the due payments were paid, he could see no way that the translation could come back on track.

"This is very much like driving a car with a faulty engine. Every so often it dies on you and you have to go out and give a shove.

"But how often can you keep doing that?" he said.