Eurofound’s language policy is implemented in the context of its current work programme and guided by Eurofound’s corporate communication strategy.
Three principles of the strategy inform Eurofound’s multilingual approach.
- Eurofound’s primary goal is to ensure that EU-level decision-makers are best served with the highest-quality, timely and policy-relevant information they require to shape the improvement of Europe’s living and working conditions.
- Eurofound will reach out to the national level where it concerns the influencing or implementation of EU policy at national level or where Eurofound can clearly contribute useful comparative information to issues relevant at European level.
- Eurofound respects the role of multilingualism in communicating across the EU and recognises the importance of Europeans being able to access information in their own languages.
Against this background, some of Eurofound’s outputs and web information are translated into multiple languages to facilitate access for all users across the Member States.
Eurofound’s website is multilingual, to the following extent.
- Multilingual navigation is available throughout the website.
- A number of top-level landing pages are translated into all languages. ‘All languages’ refers to all 24 official languages of the EU, apart from Irish and Maltese, for which translation has been limited due to very low uptake. The same applies to selected key pages, such as the ‘About Eurofound’ content and pages relating to Eurofound surveys. The data visualisation tool presenting survey data is available in all languages.
- Translated publications are published online.
The translation programme for publications includes the following.
- Executive summaries of publications are translated into all languages.
- The Living and working in Europe Yearbook and certain other key publications are translated into French, German and up to three additional languages as required.
- Corporate and promotional material is translated as required.
- Ad hoc and on-demand requests for translation of specific publications are reviewed on a case-by-case basis.
Interpretation at events organised by Eurofound will be provided for the relevant language(s) where possible.
Eurofound will continue to adopt a pragmatic and cost-effective approach to implementing its language policy. Its intention is to enable wide-scale multilingual provision to optimise access for users across the Member States while also responding to demand-driven needs where appropriate. The language policy and its implementation are kept under review in light of Eurofound’s work programme, communication priorities and available resources.