Lawyer 'behind' EU constitution translation

Nobody has yet claimed responsibility for the calamitous errors in the Maltese translation of the draft European constitution which became evident at last week's EU summit in Greece.

Although overall responsibility of the publication lies with the EU's council general secretariat, the Maltese person/s who actually did the translation have still not been named.

Diplomatic sources said yesterday the translation had been carried out by a young Maltese lawyer currently based overseas. No further information could be obtained.

The official Maltese translation submitted to the European summit in Greece last week got mired in controversy after it transpired that it was full of mistakes.

One glaring example is the translation of part of a sentence that speaks of the inhabitants of Europe arriving in successive waves: l-habitanti (sic)...waslu f'mewg ta' success.

The term "advisory bodies" was translated literally - igsma tal-pariri.

Over the past days various individuals and EU-related consultancy companies have issued disclaimers dissociating themselves from the translation.

The Maltese language watchdog Akkademja tal-Malti has also condemned the work carried out.