The Translation Department is the Translation Centre’s largest department, accounting for more than half of the Centre’s staff. It is made up of three Language Sections.

Each Language Section is subdivided into translation teams, one for each official language of the EU. The size of each team varies according to the translation workload into each target language. All translators translate into their mother tongue; they have varied academic backgrounds, mostly linguistically-oriented.

Translators are offered training throughout their professional life at the Centre, both in terms of language learning (developing existing language skills and acquiring new languages) and client‑specific activities.

They translate and revise documents as well as trade marks. They also subtitle videos, compile glossaries and contribute to the IATE interinstitutional term base.

As linguists, in-house translators guarantee the language quality of the translations delivered. This is true of both texts translated in-house and texts that are outsourced to specialised external language service providers.

Through its business model based on outsourcing and internal quality control, the Centre has become a reference point for all aspects of the revision process.