9. 6. 81 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 138/3 
Opinion on the proposal for a Council Decision on the adoption of a European Economic 
Community research and development programme for a machine translation system of 
advanced design 
The text referred to the Committee has been published in Official Journal of the 
European Communities No C 234 of 12 September 1980, page 2. 
A. LEGAL BASIS FOR THE OPINION 
On 4 August 1980 the Council referred the abovementioned proposal to the Economic 
and Social Committee in accordance with Article 198 of the Treaty establishing the 
European Economic Community. 
B. OPINION OF THE ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMITTEE 
The Economic and Social Committee prepared its opinion on the above matter at its 
185th plenary session held in Brussels on 25 and 26 February 1981. 
The full text of the opinion is as follows: 
THE ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMITTEE, 
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the 
European Economic Community, and in particular 
Article 198 thereof, 
Having regard to the request from the Council of 
the European Communities on 4 August 1980 for an 
opinion on the proposal for a Council Decision on 
the adoption of a European Economic Community 
research and development programme for a machine 
translation system of advanced design (•), 
Having regard to the decision taken by its chairman 
on 23 September 1980, instructing the Section for 
Energy and Nuclear Questions to prepare the 
opinion and Report on the matter, 
Having regard to the opinion issued by the above 
Section (rapporteur: Mr Friedrichs) at its 61st 
meeting on 6 February 1981, 
Having regard to the discussions at its 185th plenary 
session on 25 and 26 February 1981 (meeting of 
25 February 1981), 
HAS ADOPTED THE FOLLOWING OPINION 
unanimously: 
The Committee endorses the proposal, subject to the 
following comments: 
(i) OJ No C 234, 12. 9. 1980, p. 2. 1. Given the range of languages in the Community 
and the role of international communication, the 
successful development of a machine translation 
system (Eurotra) is crucial to the reduction of 
language barriers. 
2. The Committee notes that linguistic research and 
technological advance in the field of data-processing 
have made it feasible to undertake the development 
of such a system capable of producing 'high quality 
translations simultaneously in all Community 
languages, rapidly and at low cost'. The Committee 
feels, however, that there are still major obstacles to 
the achievement of this objective. Above all, there is 
the problem of the correct rendering of meaning, 
which arises in particular in connection with 
machine translation. Nevertheless, the Section is 
aware that every translation needs to be checked, 
regardless of whether it has been done by a 
machine. 
3. The Committee, therefore regards as somewhat 
over-optimistic the statement that 'at the end of five 
years of sustained effort the Community and the 
Member States will have at their disposal the most 
advanced multilingual translation system which will 
be suitable for numerous industrial applications and 
will produce royalties on a world scale...'. Firstly, 
the aim is to create openings on the market for the 
manufacturers of such machine translation systems 
and not to produce revenue for the Community. And 
secondly, the project with its planned vocabulary of 
No C 138/4 Official Journal of the European Communities 9. 6. 81 
some 20 000 entries will have a limited range of 
application. Potential users will therefore have to 
develop vocabularies of their own. 
4. The Committee feels obliged to refer to the long-
term potential social and cultural repercussions 
involved. Even if we accept that, for a variety of 
reasons (need for accuracy checks, increase in 
demand for translations), the proposed system will 
Done at Brussels, 25 February 1981. not affect the demand for translators, their career 
profile may be permanently altered. As the project 
advances, all requisite steps must be therefore taken 
to implement the necessary changes as smoothly as 
possible. The Committee would refer in this 
connection to the Committee's opinion on 'European 
society faced with the challenge of new information 
technologies: A Community response (Doc. 
CES 1357/80)'. 
The Chairman 
of the Economic and Social Committee 
Tomas ROSEINGRAVE