WRITTEN QUESTION E-2103/02

by Paulo Casaca (PSE) to the Commission

(16 July 2002)

Subject: Survival of the Ancien Régime in Portuguese

In its reply E-1616/02(1), the Commission told me that any negative connotations associated with the term (governança) dated back to the Ancien Régime and, consequently, had since become obsolete.

I should like to point out that over and above the dictionaries cited and my personal impressions, there are various other examples of the persistence of these Ancien Régime connotations.

The expression gouvernance was translated by the Commission as governação in its White Paper on European Governance Enhancing Democracy in the European Union(2), and even in July of last year, it was translated as boa governação in the Commission's electronic dictionary. The Council's terminological database provides a further example of this survival of the Ancien Régime connotations of governação, since it also uses the term governação and the example it provides concerns one of the working parties of the Convention on Europe's future.

This being so, am I right in thinking that the Commission does not deem it more appropriate to initiate a fresh discussion between its linguists and terminologists, possibly taking account of the opinions of the various supporters of the Ancien Régime cited above, before trying to convince those responsible for Portuguese dictionaries to change the meaning of the term governança?

(1) OJ C 92 E, 17.4.2003, p. 71.

(2) SEC(2000) 1547/7 final, 11.10.2000.

Answer given by Mr Kinnock on behalf of the Commission

(11 September 2002)

In October 2000, the Commission adopted its Work Programme for the preparation of the White Paper on European Governance. This internal document(1), to which the Honourable Member refers, is not the White Paper itself(2), but merely a preparatory document designed to bring together the Governance Team and the various interservice groups working with it under a single organisational umbrella. One of the particular aims of the document was to pay specific attention to questions of translation and communication in order to examine in depth possible difficulties with the term governance which may arise in the Union's languages. This examination was carried out with great care and it has led, in certain cases, to the initial choice of terms in translations being modified. In particular, early translations in Portuguese of governance, such as the term governação, have been changed to the one used in the White Paper itself. As explained in the previous answer given by the Commission to the Honourable Member's previous question(3), the final choice deliberately avoided terms which may be confused with government or governmental activity.

The Commission supports initiatives to foster dialogue between its translators and terminologists and their counterparts in the other Institutions. One of these initiatives is the recent decision by the Commission Translation Service to set up the inter-institutional codecision database (eCODB) which enables Commission translators to forward to their colleagues in both the Council and the Parliament the reasons for their terminological choices and to obtain their feedback. The Commission's Translation Service multilingual study group which translated the term governance worked closely with the Governance Team with a specific mandate. It was therefore not possible at that stage to enlarge the multilingual group to include the other Institutions.

No attempt was made to convince those responsible for Portuguese dictionaries to change the meaning of the term governança . The contacts made, which the Commission mentioned in its previous answer, were also made with the Instituto de Lexicologia e Lexicografia, Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, to ascertain the reasons why a negative connotation should persist around the term governança in some dictionaries' entries and to elicit their opinion as to its new proposed meaning.

As the Honourable Member may be aware, Commission translators in Portuguese and other languages are, from time to time, called upon to establish terminology without recourse to national bodies or institutions which would be able to settle such linguistic matters in a consensual, and final manner. In this case, every effort was made to obtain a maximum clarity and accuracy of terminology after seeking the advice of recognised Portuguese experts.

(1) SEC(2000) 1547/7 final.

(2) COM(2001) 428 final, OJ C 287, 12.10.2001.

(3) Written Question E-1616/02.