"The language of Europe is translation" : an interview with Karl-Johan Lönnroth

Abstract

The European Commission's Directorate-General for Translation likes to introduce itself as «the largest translation service in the world». Based both in Brussels and Luxembourg, it has presently a permanent staff of about 1700 linguists and some 550 support staff. The DGT translates written texts into and out of all the EU's official languages. It does not deal with interpretation, which is the responsibility of the Directorate-General for Interpretation. And it works exclusively for the European Commission, on the understanding that other EU institutions have their own translation service. Considering the key role that the DGT plays in the complex structure of EU multilingualism, Quaderns. Revista de Traducció saw it fit to have a talk with Karl-Johan (Juhani) Lönnroth, the present Director-General. Mr Lönnroth was born on 8 September 1945 in Helsinki. He has a Master of Political Sciences (University of Helsinki), a Master of Arts (University of Wisconsin, USA) and also studied at the Ecole Nationale d'Administration, in Paris. Prior to his arrival to the DGT on January 1, 2004, Mr Lönnroth worked for the Secretariat of the Nordic Council of Ministres, occupied different posts at the Finnish Ministry of Labour, was Director of Employment Department at the International Labour Office in Geneva, and later on was involved with the European Commission's Directorate-General for Employment and Social Affairs, of which he became Deputy Director-General. Although Mr Lönnroth is proficient in Swedish, Finnish, French, and German as well, the interview took place in English -a telling detail in itself.