<<If you think it’s expensive to hire a profession to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur!>>

Valid in 2015! Was said one hundred years ago by Red Adair (American Celebrity, Born June 18, 1915.) 

 

"We now have in place another central pillar of a truly European area of Justice. The new law on the right to information will help to guarantee fair trials for everyone in the EU. It will ensure that anyone accused or suspected of a criminal offence is clearly and promptly informed of their rights," said Vice-President Viviane Reding, the EU's Justice Commissioner. "It will be especially useful for the millions of holiday makers and others who travel around the EU and who may find themselves involved in criminal proceedings: they will now have the explicit right to be informed of their rights in a language they understand. This will help safeguard against miscarriages of justice. I am now counting on Member States to transpose this EU-law swiftly into their national systems – and not wait until the last minute before the deadline – so that it becomes a tangible reality for our 500 million citizens".

Background

The European Commission proposed the new law in July 2010 (IP/10/989) as part of a series of fair trial rights to be applied throughout the EU. It is the second measure, initiated by EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding, designed to set common EU minimum standards in criminal cases. This will boost confidence in the EU's area of justice. The European Parliament and Council approved the first proposal, which gave suspects the right to translation and interpretation, (IP/10/1305) in October 2010.

The Directive on the right to information will ensure that police and prosecutors provide suspects with information about their rights. Following an arrest, authorities will give this information in writing – in the form of a Letter of Rights – drafted in simple, everyday language. It will be provided to suspects upon arrest in all cases, whether they ask for it or not, and it will be translated if needed. EU countries are free to choose the exact wording of the Letter, but to save work the Commission proposed a model available in 22 EU languages (see Annex). This will provide consistency for people crossing borders and limit translation costs.

The Letter of Rights will contain practical details about the rights of persons arrested or detained, such as the right:

to remain silent;

to a lawyer;

to be informed of the charge;

to interpretation and translation in any language for those who do not understand the language of the proceedings;

to be brought promptly before a court following arrest;

to inform someone else about the arrest or detention.

The Letter of Rights will help to avoid miscarriages of justice and reduce the number of appeals.

At the moment, the chances that citizens will be properly informed of their rights if they are arrested and face criminal charges vary across the EU. In some Member States, suspects only receive oral information about their procedural rights, and in others the written information is not given unless requested.

Under Article 82(2) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, and with a view to facilitating the mutual recognition of judicial decisions and improving police and judicial cooperation on criminal matters, the EU can adopt measures to strengthen the rights of EU citizens, based on the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights.

The right to a fair trial and the right to a defence are set out in Articles 47 and 48 of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights; as well as in Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

In June 2011, the Commission put forward a third measure to guarantee access to a lawyer and to communicate with relatives (IP/11/689). The proposal is currently under discussion in the European Parliament and in the Council.

For more information

Homepage of Vice-President Viviane Reding, EU Justice Commissioner:

http://ec.europa.eu/reding

Whether you are in Greece, France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, UK, Luxembourg, Belgium, Netherlands, even if you speak only German Slovak, Greek, French or Italian, you have the right of an interpreter. Professional interpreters and translators work in all countries in the EU, now this new law reinforces the rights of EU citizens, based on the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights.

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January 2015 training for legal translations @ capital UK.

Translation for the EU: making the impossible possible

by Vilelmini Sosoni :University Lecturer @ Corfu Ionian University, Freelance Translator, Editor, Interpreter and Subtitler living in Greece.
In her overview of legal translation within the context of the European Union, Vilelmini presented the either loved or more likely hated phenomenon of Eurospeak in bridging the gap between cultures and expressing new and pan-European concepts through neologisms (newly coined lexical units such as ‘flexicurity’ or existing lexical units that are bestowed a new sense such as ‘cohabitation’) and borrowings (introduction of words from one language to another such as ‘stagiaire’, ‘comitology’ and ‘third country’, all derived from French).
Once again, awareness of principles of concepts in common and civil law was emphasised, but also in this context thorough knowledge of the EU’s Institutions, decision-making and legal framework is required.
Delegates to the training event were introduced to the concept of intertextuality, that is the idea that most EU texts are recognised in terms of their dependence on other relevant texts, hence many texts will refer to other decisions, directives, and so on.
One revelation came when Vilelmini explained how EU legislation does not mention the term translation; rather translations are referred to as language versions owing to the principle of linguistic equality, whereby all official EU languages are equal or equally authentic.