The European Commission provides technical support to increase translation capacity and translator-training capacity in countries aspiring to become EU member states.
EU candidate countries
When a country applying to join the EU wants to add a new language to the EU’s list of official languages, it is required to translate all EU legislation currently in force into that language ‘in good time before accession’. This requirement is part of the negotiating framework adopted at the beginning of accession negotiations. It is needed for legal certainty: the translated body of EU law must be published in a special edition of the Official Journal – the EU’s legal bulletin – by the time of accession. If this is not done, the law cannot be enforced against individuals. The negotiating framework also includes a requirement for the country in question to ‘train a sufficient number of translators and interpreters required for the proper functioning of the [European] Union’s institutions upon its accession’.
It is therefore essential that candidate countries have adequate translation and translator-training capacity. DG Translation offers help by carrying out technical capacity-building activities supporting the candidate countries in their linguistic preparations. The aim is to share experience from past enlargements and to bridge knowledge gaps while facilitating cooperation and the sharing of best practices among candidate countries.