EU on the lookout for Maltese translators

The European Union is seeking Maltese translators to join the ranks of the language services within its institutions, which are among the largest of their kind in the world.In a competition notice launched last month, the European Personnel Selection

By: independent.com.mt

Jan 09 2025
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EU on the lookout for Maltese

The European Union is seeking Maltese translators to join the ranks of the language services within its institutions, which are among the largest of their kind in the world.

In a competition notice launched last month, the European Personnel Selection Office announced it is looking for 119 translators into the Maltese language.

Selection competitions-sometimes called "concours"-might be unfamiliar to those outside the EU bubble and are considerably lengthier than recruitment processes in the private sector. Eligible applicants must sit for tests assessing abstract, language, and numerical reasoning, akin to what one might find in an IQ test. This is followed by translation-specific tests covering language knowledge, language comprehension, translation, and revision. Candidates who successfully pass both stages are placed on a "reserve list," which allows them to be recruited by the translation services of one of the EU institutions in Brussels or Luxembourg on an indefinite basis.

These positions are generally highly sought after, as EU employees enjoy a host of benefits, including a generous salary, job security, flexible working conditions, and opportunities for training and career growth in an international environment. Employees also have the option to move between EU bodies while retaining the same grade. For many Maltese speakers, this represents one of the few opportunities to work full-time in the Maltese language outside of education or academia.

The competition is open to candidates with a university degree-not necessarily in language or translation-who have an excellent command of Maltese, English, or French, as well as a third official EU language.

This is the first competition announced for Maltese in several years; the previous one in 2016 sought 26 successful candidates, but only 13 made it to the final list.

EU bodies have historically struggled to attract sufficient Maltese translators, who are required to translate the same body of EU documents as translators working in the other 23 official EU languages.

David Schembri, the Directorate-General for Translation's representative in Malta

Photos: Elisa Von Brockdorff for the European Commission

According to David Schembri, the local representative for the European Commission's Directorate-General for Translation, the challenge lies in the limited pool of candidates: "Sometimes, there's no going around the fact that Malta is the EU's smallest population. However, I've also noticed that some eligible candidates-including those who studied translation at postgraduate level-are unwilling to move from Malta, even though the salary and conditions are far above what one could expect locally," Schembri said.

In the past, EU recruiters could rely on the fact that many Maltese graduates, besides being bilingual, also had a good knowledge of Italian due to its prevalence in Maltese households through television.
"The wider offer of television programming locally has also meant that fewer people, starting with younger millennials and subsequent generations, have been as exposed to Italian as previous generations, which in turn makes our pool smaller," Schembri explained.

Recent figures show a parallel trend, as fewer students are choosing to study foreign languages at an advanced level. The percentage has dropped from 15% in 2007 to just 3.6% in 2022, suggesting that future recruitment drives for Maltese translators may face even greater challenges.

"For the present, however, those with the necessary language skills and the will to go beyond our shores have a golden opportunity ahead of them. Learning new languages is an investment that will pay off, one way or another," Schembri concluded.

Registrations close on January 14 at 12:00 CET. To apply and for more information, visit: https://eu-careers.europa.eu/en/job-opportunities/maltese-language-translators.