The multilingual voices of Europe: the European Commission Translation Service

Multilingualism within the European Union is an established principle whereby all the eleven languages of Member States are accepted on an equal level and recognised as official. However, the way such principle is guaranteed and applied in practice is often overlooked. This paper is aimed at giving a general overview of the existing translation procedures in the European institutions, with particular attention to the Translation Service of the European Commission, commonly known as “SdT” (Service de Traduction). It guarantees linguistic democracy in Europe, playing a crucial liaison role between the European Commission, its citizens and the other EU institutions. The SdT represents the first translation service in the world and is unique for the way it is structured and organised.