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Matthew Vella
The Maltese translation industry is lost in translation, literally, as frustration has mounted over the lack of work reaching Malta from the European Union which has been “reduced to a trickle”, in the words of one company director.
Despite its status as an official EU language, the official demotion of the Maltese language, ironically happening on accession day on May 1, 2004, has meant there is little or no work for Maltese translation companies after the Maltese government applied for a derogation not to have all EU documents translated into Maltese.
The three-year derogation has effectively backfired onto the local translation industry and exposed the government’s lack of preparedness to take on the obligations of having an official EU language. Translation companies are now stirring up and are looking towards consolidating their voice into a lobby to bring about a reversal of the situation. Around thirteen translation companies submitted tenders with the EU’s Translation DG, but so far have seen no substantial amounts of work, save for a period of activity in June.
Permanent Representative to the EU Richard Cachia Caruana has already met with representatives from translation companies, in a meeting in which he stated that the derogation should not have affected freelance work outside the EU institutions. Translators have also met with MEPs Simon Busuttil and Joseph Muscat, and meetings with Foreign Minister Michael Frendo and EU Ambassador to Malta Ronald Gallimore have also been scheduled.
The derogation on the Maltese language, which was issued by the Council of Ministers barely twenty-four hours into Malta’s new European adventure, states that not all EU documents are to be translated in Maltese due to the lack of qualified linguists and translators. The regulation stated that it was not possible to translate to Maltese “all acts adopted by the institutions”.
However, in the two-hour meeting held with representatives from the translation industry, Cachia Caruana said the intention of the derogation had been to avoid any translation errors which could crop up on the Maltese versions of EU laws, that would have otherwise aided the creation of legal loopholes.
MaltaToday is informed that translators were told that the problem could be related to the wide interpretation of the law that had been given by the Translation DG’s (DGT) officials in Brussels and Luxembourg, where the Maltese departments still face a shortage in translators and interpreters.
Carole Ory, assistant director-general at the DGT said the derogation was prepared in “close collaboration with the Maltese government, and the transitional regime has been adopted also on request by the Maltese government.”
Ory pointed out that, at the time being, the Commission does not share the view that the Council regulation’s effects on the local translation industry “is based on a problem of internal EU bureaucracy, nor that the regime adopted has been excessively interpreted,” running counter to assertions made during the meeting between translation firms and Richard Cachia Caruana.
Cachia Caruana is now expected to schedule a meeting in November to review the derogation, an assessment exercise carried out after a decision has been in force for six months. In December 2006, the Council of Ministers will review the situation of Malta’s translation effort to determine whether to extend the transitional period for a further period of one year.
The Maltese government only instituted a postgraduate course in translation and interpretation at the University of Malta in 2003, with its first graduates expected in 2005. Currently, Malta has not yet reached the required level of staff complement for translators and interpreters.
The frustration being felt in the local translation industry has also been compounded by the fact that the list of Maltese translation contractors to the EU is the only one not to be published in its entirety. Translators speaking to MaltaToday have complained of a lack of transparency since they do not know who their competitors are, whilst Malta remains the only country not to have its list of translators made public.
Translation companies enlisted to carry out EU translations are graded according to price and quality of translation in a ranking table. Malta is yet the only EU Member State whose list is not published – whilst contracted translators can access the EU’s internet portal to check their ranking, the list of other Maltese translation companies contracted to the EU cannot be seen.
matthew@newsworksltd.com
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