WRITTEN QUESTION E-2647/99

by Armando Cossutta (GUE/NGL) to the Commission

(12 January 2000)

Subject: Awarding of a contract for a service that is already covered

The Commission has recently published an invitation to tender(1), for the creation of an interinstitutional terminology base for the Luxembourg Translation Centre, which would be financed by the Industry Directorate-General (ex DG III) for the sum of EUR 1,5 million.

The three largest European institutions (the Council, Parliament, and the Commission) already have their own terminology bases (TIS, Euterpe and Eurodiautom) and these are electronically interconnected. At the Commission there is even an interface (one-stop-terminology) developed by the internal terminology department that enables term searches with simultaneous consultation of the three databases mentioned above and others (JIAMCATT, FAO, ITU etc.), and the use of Internet search engines.

It is not clear from the contract's technical specifications if the project is designed to create a terminology base from scratch or simply to create a common interface for access to the databases mentioned above, with the addition of a validation and control function.

Can the Commission answer the following:

1. Why does the Commission plan to create a structure that parallels existing ones?

How can it reconcile this decision with Regulation (EC) No 2610/95(2), amending Regulation (EC) No 2965/94(3), the text of which affirms the need to strengthen administrative collaboration between the institutions and bodies of the Union with a view to making overall savings by avoiding superfluous work and parallel structures?

2. Why does the Commission intend to entrust the implementation and supervision of a project of this kind to the Translation Centre, given that as its director has publicly admitted it does not have either the experience or the necessary specific knowledge in the fields of terminology and informatics?

(1) OJ S 163, 24.8.1999.

(2) OJ L 268, 10.11.1995, p. 1.

(3) OJ L 314, 7.12.1994, p. 1.

Answer given by Mr Liikanen on behalf of the Commission

(24 February 2000)

The three largest European institutions already have their own terminology bases (TIS, Euterpe and Eurodicautom), but these are not electronically interconnected. The Commission does indeed have an interface that enables term searches with simultaneous consultation of the three major databases and others (one-stop terminology), but it is internal to the Commission. While a single access mechanism of this type could be made more widely available and comprehensive, it provides only a partial solution to

the problems of harmonisation of terminology between the institutions and the elimination of redundancy in both data content and human and financial resources employed. The feasibility study on the creation of an interinstitutional database initiated by the interinstitutional translation committee concluded that only an interinstitutional base can really offer a solution to the content redundancy problem and meet the normative objectives linked with terminology.

In reply to the specific questions:

1. The project in question is intended to replace the current multiplicity of databases with a single, central and jointly-managed terminology database for the Community. So it is meant to reduce the current parallel structures and resources in the institutions and avoids the creation of such structures in the smaller institutions and agencies of the Community. The project has been adopted by the interinstitutional translation committee and therefore enjoys the support of the translation services of all the Community institutions. No decision has, however, yet been taken on the location and management of the planned joint terminology data base.

The initiative is therefore in keeping with the Translation centre's mission, set out in Council Regulation (EC) No 2610/95 of 30 October 1995 amending Regulation (EC) No 2965/94 setting up a Translation centre for bodies of the European Union, to strengthen administrative collaboration between the institutions and bodies of the Union with a view to rationalising working methods and making overall savings by avoiding superfluous work and the creation of expensive parallel structures.

2. The technical implementation of the project will be guided by an interinstitutional steering group composed of expert representatives from the Translation centre, the Parliament, the Council, the Translation service of the Commission and the Directorate general enterprise. The contract has been awarded to a firm with considerable experience in the area of database implementation and the linguistic and terminological expertise is provided by a government research institute with a world-wide reputation in the language technology field. Furthermore, the project is supervised by an expert group composed of terminology and informatics specialists from each of the Community institutions, the decentralised agencies and Member States.