MORE THAN 25 YEARS COMMITTED TO MULTILINGUALISM

The Translation Centre for the Bodies of the European Union is a European Union agency. Established in Luxembourg in 1994, its main mission is to provide translation and language services to the other decentralised EU agencies. It occasionally also assists EU institutions and bodies who have their own translation services during peak workloads or for specific projects. It currently has around 200 staff, including officials, temporary agents and contract staff.

It has grown steadily since its inception, hand in hand with an increasing number of official EU languages and highly specialised clients. The Centre has gained considerable experience in meeting its clients’ specific needs, be these related to service type, file format, deadline, field of expertise or a wide range of language combinations.

Today, the Centre provides a wide range of language services, meeting the diverse needs of its numerous partners. See the full list of our partners

The Centre’s second mission is to participate in interinstitutional cooperation at EU level with a view to rationalising working methods and achieving economies of scale. For example, since 2003, the Translation Centre has also developed and managed the interinstitutional terminology database IATE on behalf of its institutional partners.  

 

 

 


 
1994
 
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EU flag

On 28 November 1994, the Council of the European Union adopts Regulation (EC) No 2965/94 establishing the Translation Centre.

1995
 
The first Chairman of the Management Board
Edouard Brackeniers 
October 1995 – December 1996
An Amending Regulation is adopted in 1995 to extend the client portfolio and to give the Centre a role in interinstitutional cooperation.
The Centre’s first Director
Francisco De Vicente 
October 1995 – January 2005

 

11

official languages of the EU

20 000

translated pages

7

clients

 
1997
The second Chairwoman of the Management Board
Colette Flesch 
January 1997 – June 1999
The Centre leaves its offices in Luxembourg’s city centre and moves to the Nouvel Hémicycle in Kirchberg (LU), where most EU institutions are located.
1998
 

200 000

translated pages

12

clients

 
 
1999
 
The third Chairman of the Management Board
Brian McCluskey 
July 1999 – June 2002
2001
 
Flosys comes into operation, a cutting-edge IT tool developed in-house that handles the entire translation workflow from the time a client sends a document to the Centre to delivery of the translated version(s).
The Centre launches Nemo to manage the Community trade mark translation process.
 
 
2002
The fourth Chairman of the Management Board
Michel Vanden Abeele 
July 2002 – June 2003

1 000 000

translated pages

2003
 
The European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) recognises that the Centre is ‘committed to Excellence in Europe’.
The Centre is appointed project initiator and project manager for IATE (InterActive Terminology for Europe), the joint terminology database for all the institutions/bodies of the European Union.
 
 
2004
The fifth Chairman of the Management Board
Karl-Johan (Juhani) Lönnroth 
January 2004 – April 2010

20

official languages of the EU

 
The ‘Big Bang’ EU enlargement of 2004, which almost doubles the number of EU languages from 11 to 20, marks the start of a new era for the Centre.
2005
 
For its 10th anniversary, the Centre organises the conference ‘Multilingualism at any price’.
Acting Director
Marie-Anne Fernández Suárez 
January 2005 – April 2006
 
2006
 
The Centre’s second Director
Gailė Dagilienė 
May 2006 - October 2013 
2007
 
The Centre adds several other official EU languages to its portfolio as Bulgaria and Romania join the EU and Irish becomes an official language of the European Union, albeit with a derogation in place.
The EU interinstitutional terminology database, IATE, is made available to the general public.
Visit by Leonard Orban, the European Commissioner for Multilingualism.

23

official languages of the EU

 
2010
 
The Centre organises a conference entitled ‘The Language of Europe. Translating for the EU’ to commemorate its 15th anniversary.
The Centre replaces Nemo with Tr@Mark workflow to manage the Community trade mark translation process.
2011
 
The Centre launches ECHA-term, an online multilingual terminology database developed for the European Chemicals Agency.
The sixth Chairman of the Management Board
Rytis Martikonis 
February 2011 – February 2022
 
2013

8 000 000

translated pages

24

official languages of the EU,
now including Croatian

Acting Director
Marie-Anne Fernández Suárez 
October 2013 – July 2015 
The Centre moves to its current premises in the Drosbach building in Luxembourg City and signs its seat agreement with the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg.
2015
 
Acting Director
Benoît Vitale
August 2015 – December 2015

9 000 000

translated pages

61

clients

 
2016
 
The Centre’s third Director
Máire Killoran
January 2016 - December 2018 
The Centre launches eCdT, the new customised translation workflow management system, which replaces the legacy system, Flosys.
2017
 
Study on the Translation Centre as the Linguistic Shared Service Provider for the EU Agencies and Bodies. The study confirms the Centre’s raison d’être. 
 
 
2018

65

clients

Launch of a brand-new version of IATE 
Adoption of a strategic approach and biennial Transformation Plan  
The Centre agrees with the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) on a two-year cooperation programme to develop new linguistic services and optimise core business processes to gain efficiency and enhance the customer experience. 
2019
 

12 800 000

translated pages

68

clients

Acting Director
Benoît Vitale
January 2019 – January 2022
The Centre starts implementing its biennial Transformation Plan 
 
2020
The Centre finalises the implementation of its Transformation Plan by launching new services, processes and tools.

13 400 000

translated pages

69

clients

2021
 
 
The Centre launches a whole series of new services: automatic translation; custom machine translation; automatic transcription; paste ‘n’ go translation, light post-editing.  
 
2022
The seventh Chairman of the Management Board
Christos Ellinides 
March 2022 – to date
The Centre’s fourth Director
Ildikó Horváth
February 2022 - to date

 

70

clients

2023
 

73

clients

The Centre launches its unique multi-engine machine translation (MEMT) strategy.