IP/09/592

Brussels, 20 April 2009

Conference on Literary and Culture to show how Translation contributes to consolidating the European idea

Today President José Manuel Barroso and Commissioner Leonard Orban will be present at a conference on Literary Translation and Culture in Brussels. With this conference the European Commission aims to encourage the debate on the role of literary translation in and intercultural dialogue. This Conference is a follow-up to the "Lunch Debate" discussion on translation that was held in Brussels with well known experts on 6 November 2008 and is designed to extend the discussions on literary translation to a wider public of professionals, convening around 120 stakeholders, translators, professionals, authors, publishers, academics and literary critics, as well as theatre, cinema and music professionals.

"European translation has made a decisive contribution to the consolidation of the European idea" said Leonard Orban, for …"it has made it possible to reconcile discovery of and respect for diversity with the awareness that we have a common cultural heritage. It symbolises opening up to what is different". This conference is a continuation of the European Commission's commitment to extending the understanding of the importance of linguistic diversity and literary translation as a tool for understanding other cultures. Long before Europe became an economic and political project with the establishment of the European Communities, there was the recognition that the wealth of , laws, local and national institutions that could be observed on the continent rested upon a substantial unity at a deeper level. It is this realization that explains why literary translation is important, for it allows Europeans to overcome linguistic and cultural boundaries and get acquainted with the works and traditions of their neighbours. In recent decades, translation has grown in importance thanks to another factor as well: the multilingual nature of the European project. EU multilingual policies include the promotion of language learning. The plenary session of the conference will start with a debate between President Barroso, Ernesto Ferrero, Italian writer and literary critic and Jordi Savall, Spanish musician. This will be followed by a speech by Commissioner Orban on the policy for multilingualism. There will also be speeches by Vasco Graça Moura, MEP and Younis Tawfik, Iraqi writer. The afternoon will be devoted to three workshops ("Translation and intercultural dialogue", "The translator at work: all sides of the profession", "Translation in all its forms"). A synopsis of the works will be provided by the general rapporteur Jacques de Decker, writer and permanent secretary of the "Académie royale de langue et de littérature françaises de Belgique". Final conclusions will be drawn up by Commissioner Orban at the end of the day. The conference will be held from 09:30 to 17:00 in the Durieux Room of the Charlemagne Building, Brussels. Interpretation will be provided in the plenary for the following languages: FR, EN, DE, IT, ES, PT, RO, NL, PL, SK, GR, SI, HU, CZ and FI. Registration is now closed but the conference can be followed through webstreaming from the following website: http://ec.europa.eu/education/languages/index_en.htm Commissioner's website: http://ec.europa.eu/commission_barroso/orban/index_en.htm Translation DG: http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/translation European Commission Languages Portal http://europa.eu/languages/en/home

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