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Matthew Vella
Maltese translators at the European Union’s institutions can expect an increase in their workload when a derogation on the translation of EU documents to Maltese will be lifted on 1 May 2007.
Falling short of gearing up on the translation effort, the Maltese government was awarded a three-year derogation on translating EU legislation into Maltese, barely twenty-four hours into accession on 1 May 2004.
The expected workload for Maltese translators after the derogation will be lifted on 1 May 2007 will be 60,000-70,000 pages per year.
Tytti Granqvist, a spokesperson for the directorate-general for translation at the European Commission said the workload was comparable with the number of pages translated by the other languages which became official in May 2004, but were not subject to a derogation.
There are currently 60 translators in the Maltese translation units in Brussels and Luxembourg. Granqvist said that with the current number of translators in the Maltese language department, there is need to recruit 20 more translators.
The 1 May 2004 derogation had been requested due to the lack of qualified translators upon accession. The Council of Ministers was expected to review the derogation in December 2006, to decide whether to extend the transitional period for a further period of one year.
mvella@mediatoday.com.mt
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