Freelance translators in the dark

I would like to voice my concern regarding the use of the Maltese language in European institutions. Together with many other people, I have been training hard to become a freelance translator and after an intensive six-month course was awarded a certificate enabling me to translate EU-specific documents from English into Maltese.

We were given to understand that as from May 1, 2004 all documents published by the European Commission had to be translated into Maltese because that is what the government had ensured, having boasted so much about having Maltese as an official EU language.

Now we learn that the government has asked and has been granted a three-year derogation. In simple terms, Malta has accepted to have only the most urgent documents translated into Maltese.

Why did the Maltese government fail to reveal this derogation? Why did the EU Commission grant this derogation after having awarded a translations contract to 13 Maltese companies which are ready to start translation work immediately?

Malta can only benefit from the translations industry since translators are paid by the EU Commission and so there would be a wave of new jobs available in Malta. There is plenty of work and there are excellent freelance translators who have already satisfied EU requirements, so why wait three years? If the government accepts this situation, Maltese language translators will suffer a severe blow.

I urge all freelance translators to make their voices heard. We cannot tolerate such indifference towards the Maltese language both by the Maltese government and the EU Commission. We have invested heavily in this project through computer upgrading, internet subscriptions, expensive dictionaries and training.

Maltese MEPs, now is the time to work all together for the good of our language but no more speeches (in Maltese maybe!) - we want facts.