EU translation boss defends Maltese language

The director general responsible for the translation service within the European Union, Juhani Lonnroth, has defended the right of the Maltese to be treated equally to other major nations in terms of their language.

Speaking during a debate organised by the Centre of European Policy Studies (CEPS) in Brussels last week, Mr Lonnroth dismissed comments by foreign journalists who criticised the EU for spending a lot of money on minor languages such as Maltese.

The Finnish director-general said Maltese was as much an official language as all the others in the EU.

"We are looking at rights, not numbers. If there is one Maltese person who does not understand the paper put before him, he has the same rights as any German to have the document translated into his own language," he said.

He also brushed off complaints that larger member states had to cut down on translation staff to accommodate translators from smaller countries, such as Malta, which in proportion has a bigger staff than they do.

"At the end of the day, the difference is only the amount of copies you pre-set the printer for, 90 million for the Germans or 300,000 for the Maltese," Mr Lonnroth said.

The EU currently spends some €1.1 billion on translation and interpretation, around one per cent of its annual budget, equivalent to €2.50 per EU citizen. This pays for 2,500 staff, or a tenth of the Commission's workforce.

Since Malta joined the EU in 2004, many Maltese, particularly the young, have started a career as translators, interpreters or lawyer-linguists with the EU. It is estimated that there are currently over 120 Maltese working in these sectors in Brussels and Luxembourg. In the EU, French, German and English are procedural languages, meaning all internal documents as well as EU legislation must be issued in those languages, while 20 other EU languages, including Maltese, have official status, meaning EU legislation has to be translated into all these languages.