Education and Science, EU – Baltic States, Forum, Integration

The Conference is a follow-up to the “Lunch Debate”, a European round-table discussion on translation that was held in Brussels on 6 November 2008 and is well known to experts designed to extend the discussions on literary translation to a wider public of language professionals. Around 120, translators, professionals, authors, publishers, academics and literary critics, as well as theatre, cinema and music professionals took part in the present conference. 

Commission’s opinion

“European translation has made a decisive contribution to the consolidation of the European idea. It has made it possible to reconcile discovery of and respect for diversity with the awareness that we have a common cultural heritage. It symbolises opening up to what is different".

Leonard Orban, European Commissioner for Multilingualism

This conference is a continuation of the European Commission's commitment to extending the understanding of the importance of linguistic diversity and literary translation as a tool for understanding other cultures.

Long before Europe became an economic and political project with the establishment of the European Communities, there was the recognition that the wealth of languages, laws, local and national institutions that could be observed on the continent rested upon a substantial unity at a deeper level.

It is this realization that explains why literary translation is important; it allows Europeans to overcome linguistic and cultural boundaries and get acquainted with the works and traditions of their neighbours.

In recent decades, translation has grown in importance thanks to another factor, i.e. the multilingual nature of the European integration. Therefore, the EU multilingual policies include promotion of language learning.

The conference’s plenary session was attended by the Commission President Barroso, Ernesto Ferrero, Italian writer and literary critic and Jordi Savall, Spanish musician. This was followed by a speech of Commissioner L. Orban on the EU policy for multilingualism.

The conference was organized around three workshops: "Translation and intercultural dialogue", "The translator at work: all sides of the profession" and "Translation in all its forms".

Interpretation was provided into 15 languages; the Baltic States’ languages were not included.  

The conference work can be followed at the following website: http://ec.europa.eu/education/languages/index_en.htm

Commissioner's website:

http://ec.europa.eu/commission_barroso/orban/index_en.htm

Translation DG: http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/translation