CELEX: 51980PC0314
Language: en
Date: 1980-06-10
Title: SECOND PLAN OF ACTION FOR THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE TRANSFER OF INFORMATION BETWEEN EUROPEAN LANGUAGES (Communication from the Commission)#THE CREATION OF A EUROPEAN ADVANCED MACHINE TRANSLATION SYSTELM (EUROTRA) (Communication from the Commission to the Council)#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 (presented by the Commission to the Council)

ARCHIVES HISTORIQUES
DE LA COMMISSION
COLLECTION RELIEE DES
DOCUMENTS "COM"
COM (80) 314
Vol. 1980/0112
 ---pagebreak--- Disclaimer
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 ---pagebreak---   COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES
                                                         COM(80)314 final
                                                     ■   Brussels . 10th June 1980
                                       SECOND PLAN OF ACTION
              FOR       THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE TRANSFER OF INFORMATION
   FORTHEIMPROVEMENT OF THE TRANSFER OF INFORMA
                •>. \ b i m w
                               >BETWEEN     EUROPEAN LANGUAGES
                               /BETWEEN EUROPEAN     LANGUAGES
                               Communication from the Commission )
                                     - :
                                  tH
                                  h"
                                     :
                               TION OF A EUROPEAN ADVANCED MACHINE
                         TRANSLATION
                               TRANSLATION SYSTEM      ( EUROTRA )
            ( Communication from the Commission to the Council )
                             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
                      ( presented by the Commission to the Council )
COM ( 80 ) 314 final , ,
 ---pagebreak---                  Second Plan of Action
for the improvement of the transfer of information
            , "between European languages
 ---pagebreak---                                                                                          ι
                                                           \
1 . Purpose
     The second Plan of Action is primarily a continuation of the actions undertaken
     in' implementation of the first Plan .. However, the environment has changed as a
     result of the emergence of new needs and new techniques , and a" certain number o
     new actions will be launched to take account of these developments .
1 .1 • Results of the first Plan of Action
       The first three–year Plan of Action for the improvement of the transfer of
       information between European languages , approved by the Commission on 23
       December 1976 , produced the following concrete results :
        ( a) The implementation of a system of automatic pre–translation of texts in
             natural language and its progressive improvement ; its development is bein
             increasingly oriented towards industrial and scientific applications .
       ( b ) The Commission 's terminology bank has been expanded , particularly towards
             the less well represented languages , and extended to other areas of inter
             to the European institutions .
       ( c ) Three quadrilingual sectoral thesauri have been prepared and brought into
             use in the Member States , and a macrothesaurus for the agricultural field
             is currently being compiled .
       ( d) Feasibility studies have resulted in the production of specifications for
             text processing equipment which will' soon be brought into operation in
             support of computer-assisted translation .
       ( e ) The organisation in May 1977 of -the Third European Congress on Informatio
             Systems ajid Networks , together with a large number of symposia and s em in a
             has alerted public opinion to the various tools available for overcoming
             language barrier .
       ( f) As a result of the Plan of Action , nine European uiiVversities have ooopei
             in planning a major R + D project designed to produce an advanced Europe?
             machine translation system on which they will work together during the n<
              five years *) .
*) See the EU30TRA project , which is the subject of a separate proposal .
 ---pagebreak---                                                                                      «   J *
                                          – 2 -
1.2 . Preparation of the second Plan of Action
       The following factors were taken into account in the preparation of the
       work programme s
       ( a) While the Commission was setting up its initial projects in the field, of
              multilingual ism , countries throughout the world, particularly plurilingual
              countries ( e.g. Canada, Switzerland) and those whose economies depend on
              exports to countries using other languages , were "becoming aware ©f the
              problems caused by the multiplicity of languages .
                                                              •    «       »•
       ( b ) Reflecting the douwntrend in the cost of comput er services , several .
              computer–assisted translation systems have now become operational in
              specific fields , and there has also been an increase in the number of
              terminology banks , computerized dictionaries and multilingual thesauri .
       ( c ) The Community policy for networks has resulted in the start-up of the
              Euronet–Diane network , which has made a large number of monolingual
              documentary data bases available to the innumerable potential clients who
              now impatiently await the translation of these resources into their
              languages . ,                                                            ,
        ( d) The Community policy for the telematics sector has brought the departments
              of the Commission into contact with a wide range of new resources and
              techniques capable of making a positive contribution to a large number of
              its projects .
        ( e ) In view 9f the need to develop multilingual tools for all the Community
              languages , the impending accession of new Member States to the European
              Communities will also increase the workload of the language services ,
               and the list of problems requiring solution will include the transliteration
               of texts written in Greek .
 2 . Programme of work
     As in the case of the first Plan , the various actions will be preceded by
     studies and surveys and concluded with evaluations , pilot schemes and trial
     applications .
     The programme of work will be backed by continuous detailed monitoring of the
     research in progress and active support for the teams developing new systems in
     the member countries , with a view to ensuring that the work is appropriately           N
     oriented and tailored to the needs of the Community .             .
                                           \
     Much of the work will be entrusted to specialized firms and institutions in the
     Member States . As in the case of the first Plan of Action , the Community
     departments will seek the advice of the " Committee of Experts for the Transfer
     of Information between Community Languages ( CETIL )", composed of specialists
     from the Member States and the Commission , selected for their technical know-how .
                                                                              • • •/
 ---pagebreak---    As far as the application of multilingual tools to scientific and technical
   information is concerned, however, the Commission will consult the Committee for
   Scientific and Technical Information and Documentation ( CIDST) and its sub-group
   "Multilingual' Aspects ",
                                                          • • • •                 n
  Action is planned on     the following fronts :
   ( a) general surveys on multilingualism and studies relating to new problems ,
         including follow-up work ;
  (b ) creation of multilingual terminological tools , including thesauri for
       " information management , terminology "banks and otHer computerized dictionaries
         and dictionaries for machine translation :
                                                *                 /
  ( c) design and development of machine translation software to meet the Community 's
         requirements ;                         '
  ( d) creation of an infrastructure of data processing equipment for multilingual
         activities ;
  ( e ) establishment of methods and standards for multilingual communication ;
         studies on their implications , particularly from the organizational standpoint ;
  ( f) fostering of the practical applications of existing multilingual tools 9
1 • Studies and surveys               *
      Specific surveys relating to the teaching and use of languages in the Tiember
      States will be suppfemanted by a general survey of multilingual communication
      in Europe and between Europe and the rest of the world .
      Other surveys will focus on langus.ge comprehension and the mechanisms underlying
      the transfer of information between people and between man and machines .
      The study of the translation market launched in 1979 will be supplemented by
      specific studies of trends in demand, in the light of the appearance of
      machine translation on the market and various other factors .
      The effects of Community enlargement on multilingual communication will be
      carefully analysed particularly from the data processing standpoint .
   • There will also be an in-depth examination of the economic ana technical
      feasibility of extending the Community 's multilingual tools to non-Community
      languages .
 ---pagebreak---         ί       ·
      - ,                                                                               s.
                              ,       - 4 -
2.2 . Multilingual terminological tools
      2.2.1 . Scientific and technical information management
              Multilingual thesauri are the "basis of the most highly reputed
              international retrieval systems and particularly of those now
              available to users via the Euronet - Diane network .
              Having helped to develop highly advanced methods for the construction
              of thesauri , the Commission is ready to assist all who wish to make
              their docurtterltary resources available to 'all the . potential users In
              the Community by means of multilingual thesauri .
              The Commission will assist in the setting up and management of a
              system for the updating and utilization of multilingual thesauri
              and will contribute towards the efforts to bring about standardization
              in this field .     .
      2.2.2 . Translation aids      '
              The Commission has established for its translators a terminology
              bank whose reliability is steadily being improved by a strict validity
              check . It will continue to extend the bank 's contents by Systematically
              liaising with similar projects in hand elsewhere in the Member States
              and in various international organizations , thus avoiding the-
              unnecessary duplication of current efforts .
              In particular , the Commission will , in the very near future , create
              multilingual terminology glossaries for the fields of telematics and
              telecommunications and any other areas of advanced technology of
              interest to the Community .
              It will also set up a special data bank for abbreviation ; at a time when ,
              a growing number of new organizations are known to the institutions
              mainly or solely by their initials , such a data bank is sorely needed .
      2.2.3 * Dictionaries for machine translation
              The Commission will continue to create dictionaries for fields of
              interest to the Community . It will reduce their cost by using terminology
              banks .
              Initially, these dictionaires will be tested and used in the SYSTRAN
              project ; their linguistic coding will be gradually tailored to the          -
              requirements of the more advanced systems ( see 3»3 *)»
                                                                            • • •/ It *
 ---pagebreak---                                                                                           6.      •
                                         - 5 -
                                                                                                  *
                                                                                               .  \
      2.2«4 « Computerized dictionaries                                  >   '
                Publishers of dictionaries , whether general or specialized, are
                now increasingly using computerized maintenance and up–dating
                methods . The Commission will st.udy the scope for using these
                resources in the Community terminology 'bank and in machine translation
                dictionaries .
2.3 * Machine translation programmes
      2.3.1 . Pre–translation of text ( Systran )                                                I
                In the present Plan of Action , the Commission intends to transfer               ;
                the responsibility for running the Systran system to whose development           '
                and improvement its departments have made a substantial contribution ,
                to external organizations . It will facilitate the application of the            i
                system , mainly in the industrial and scientific fields and in                    t
                connection with Euronet – Diane .                          -                      '
                Efforts to improve and extend the system will henceforth be guided
                principally by these applications .
      2.3 » 2 . Translation based on controlled syntax
                The emergence of networks of the kihd typified by videoxe < has been
                reflected in the need for systems of translations without p^+-editing.
                The Commission will undertake a study of the existing systems ami
                the elaboration of a set of rules for writing in controlled syntax with ~
                a view to facilitating such applications .                                          i
       2.3.3 . European translation System (EUROTRA)
                 The EUROTRA project , the technical details of which were finalized
                 in 1978 and 1979 , thanks to the enthusiastic cooperation of the
                 universities in the Member States , will be launched as a separate
                 programme immediately following Council approval of the project .
                 In the present Plan of Action , the Commission will be responsible
                 for the preparatory work .
 2.4 . Technical infrastructure                                        ■
        2.4.1 . Information management
                  The Commission will set up the computer equipment; needed to establish the
                  links between the multilingual thesauri and data bases which they axe
                  to control .
                                                                                  • • •/ • • •
 ---pagebreak---                                          - 6 -
      2,4*2 * Aid to translation                                                *
                Appropriate available terminology will "be placed at the disposal of
                the linguists ( translators , interpreters and terminolo gists ) of the
                Community institutions "by the creation of a complete infrastructure
                using the most recent developments in the field of telematics .
      2.3»4 » Text processing
                The Commission will acquire a pilot interactive text processing-
                installation for the input , the preparation of . texts to be translated
                and the post–editing of translated texts ; it will use these facilities
                to conduct technical and ergonomic studies .
                                                ''           ' • ' '    '
      2 .4 *4 * Transliteration                                      ■
                The Commission will study the introduction of equipment permitting
                transliteration from and into - languages which use characters differing
                from the European alphabet .
2.5 . Methodology and standardization
      2.5*1 » Evaluation methods     '
                The Commission will carry out st.udies and tests to devise evaluation
                methods and criteria which are objective and free from the personal
                bias of the assessors .
                Evaluation criteria will be developed for application to information
                retrieval in terminology banks .    -                  *
      2 . 5*2 . European alphabet
                The processing and transmission of texts m all the European languages
                will require a larger variety of characters than that available with
                current equipment .
                The Commission will participate in the work intended to lead to the
                adoption , by standards organizations , postal administrations and
                equipment manufacturers ,- of a standardized European character set
                and of a new transmission code permitting the input , transmission and
                printout of texts in all the European languages .               -
2.6 . Promotional activities                     >
      A broad Plan of Action of this type requires the participation of everyone
      directly or indirectly interested in multilingualism , including teachers ,
      publishers , documentalists , data processing experts , linguists , translators ,
      interpreters . and terminolo gists .
                                                                               • • •/ • • •
 ---pagebreak---                                       - 7
      This means identifying , contacting , informing and interesting all such
      persons . This will be done not only by organizing courses , seminars and
      demonstrations , but also by publishing a periodical containing critical
      reviews , abstracts of recent books and' reports and short articles on
      work in progress .
3 . Budget
    The expenditure involved in implementing the Plan of Action is of the order
    of 3 750 000 1'UA , broken down as follows :         ....
                                              1980       ;   1981    ■ ~     1982
    Studies and surveys                      70 000        150 000 •       180 000
    Multilingual thesauri                    30 000         40 000          60 000
    Terminology banks                       150 000        150 000         150 000
    Dictionaries for machine translation 250 000           280 000         300 000
    Computerized dictionaries                60 000        120 000         100 000
    Making Systran operational              100 000         80 000          60 000
    Systran pilot operations                200 000        320 000         250 000
    Preparation of liurotra                  80 000          p. m .          p.m .
    Technical infrastructure                 80 000         80 000          20 000
    Methodology and standards                30 000         30 000          30 000
    Promotional activities                  100 000        100 000         100 000
                                          1 150 000*)   1 350 000        1 250 000
*) All or part of this programme will be carried out , depending on the budgetary
    allocations for 1980 .
 ---pagebreak---                     COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION
                             TO THE COUNCIL '
Subject : Th.e creation, of a Europeaa ad.vaa.ced machine translation system
          (EUROTRA)
 ---pagebreak---                                                                                          1.
1 . Reasons ar-.d aims
        The European Community is a multilingual group of people who aro striving
     for ever closer unity. Many different languages are spoken in Europe , and as a
     roflection of Europe 's cultural diversity^ this variety represents eoaotUixig
     of great value .
        Unfortunately, however , it is also a major hindrance to communication between
     persons and closer ties "between nations . By hampering trade and the transfer of
     technology, it is detrimental to the Community 's competitiveness in the world.
    Even within our own institutions , it is a constant source of misunderstanding
    and friction .
        V'e must act quickly to break down these "barriers , "by providing the Community
    with a tool for efficient multilingual communication . This goal is now within
     our reach .
        Much has already "been achieved over the last few years . Multilingual thesauri
     for documentation centres have "been set up in many places . Terminological data
    "banks have been produced to aid translators . Simple translation systems have been
    introduced in a number of industries . The Commission has participated in this
    work , in the context of its first Multilingual Action Plan*. ?,
        Using the results so far achieved v;a must now set about developing a machine
    translation system which will provide high-quality translations simultaneously in
    all the Community languages rapidly and at a low cost .
    This -system , which is known as EDRGTRA,
    –  is  based on the latest findings , in particular in linguistics ,
    –  is  based on modern word processing- techniques ,
    –  is  adaptable to other languages ,
    –  is  compatible with all information processing equipment , in particular
       that of European origin, because of the portability of its software , the
       use of high level programming languages and compliance witij international
       standards in this field, and finally
    – is capable of incorporating future developments in the field of linguistics ,
       remote access information processing, and even artificial intelligence .
     *  Communication from the Commission, to the Council of 31 December 1976 .
 ---pagebreak---          i
                                                                                        ■
                                  - 2 -
2m History
  \
    In the' United States consideration was given to maohine translation as soon, as
    the first computers started operating. But in that monolingual country there
    were too few clients for suoh a multilingual tool , and consequently it was never
    developed beyond an elementary stage and was used only for rough translation
    from Russian and, later on , Vietnamese * All in all , the American concepts have
    progressed hut little over the last twenty-five years and it has been in Canada
    rather than America that resaarch has been conducted and followed up by some
    ad-hoc applications .                                "
    In Japan , where the computerization of society is much discussed, people are far
    too ooncerned with the remote transmission of ideograms to devote muoh thought
    to the development of a complete machine translation system .
    In France , Germany, Italy and England, and also at the JSC in.Ispra some basic
    research haa been carried out and, in particular, complex linguistic models have
    been set up , but owing to a lack of funds an operational informational system has
    never been implemented. Moreover this scattering of talent and money resulted in
    knowledge acquired going to waste.
    The Commission 's deoision to invite leading personalities from the relevant
    institutes in the member countries to meet in Luxembourg in February 197^ led
    to aiunanirhous agreement on the need to create and operate at Community level -
    a truly European machine translation system for whioh, thanks to the active and
    ready cooperation of these institutes , the technical specifications have now
    been drafted . .
    The background and conditions for success
    After three years of work as part of the first Commission action plan , for the
    purposes of whioh the Commission was unfalteringly encouraged and supported by
    CETIL (l ) on the one hand and CIDST and CHESTi(2) on the other hand :
    - multilingual thesaurus management software developed by the Commission has been
       widely adopted ia Europe ,
    – the Community terminological data bank will soon be accessible via EURONET
       to thousands of users in the Member States and
    £l ) Committee of Experts for the Transfer of Information 'between European Languages
    ( 2) SoieatifxQ aad, T%ohnioaX Research. Committee
 ---pagebreak---                               - 3 -
 - the system of automatic pr*-translation Systran , despite its intrinsic;
   conceptual limitations , is already in use in industry and in the
   Euronet–Diano network , and it is anticipated that it will be developed
   accordingly in these fields .
    Computerized information processing has ssaanwhile "b@e.rx generally adopted
thanks to the spectacular drop ia ux.it costs , and thi3 asethod^which today is
reliable and capable of oper - tl^g ever long distances , has sow beooroe the reset e
processing of information ,,
All the necessary technical sad economic conditions are therefore right for
a large-scale Community action programme to be launched. . Against a background
of indisputable logic and genuine - indeed immense and pressing need - particularly
ia Europe , the next step is to concentrate the efforts of the top European specia­
list and technicians and to deploy thera in a five-year working prc-gr?jsme . Thus ,
the action which the Commission is proposing to the 'Council can create the
appropriate conditions at Community level for this programme of innovation which
no single country couJ.d possibly implement on its own .
Cost /benefit analysis
In view of the fact that Community funding amounts to 7 .7 millions EUA, to which
the national contributions of the participating centres , ara.oun.ting to 5 millions
EUA, must b® added , a description of the anticipated advantages and details of
the various groups who will benefit are clearly mandatory *
      – at the end of 5 years of sustained effort the Community arid 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 as a result ;
      - those who will benefit directly by the system will be the various branches
        of industry and in particular the exporting industries , azid various govern­
        mental and quasi-governmental institutions is the Member States , as well as
        thousands of research workers , and ultimately ordinary people , businessmen ,
        tourists , students , etc.
 ---pagebreak---                                                                                    li .
                                   - 4 -
                                                                  \
– European universities and specialist institutes will have an unsurpassed
  tool for research and teaching which will place them in a position of
  world leadership ;                                          ,
  Furthermore , the governments of the Member States will have the assurance
  that the financial aid they grant to their specialized university research
      ;
  units will no longer "be sunk in subsidizing purely experimental translation
         \           -                         ■                  V
  systems ;                                                     .
– As a supplier of Eurotra hardware and software , the European information
  processing industry will he high on the list of thos? benefiting indirectly
  from the programmes ;                     -
                "    ' .                     •        <
– The new translation system will be a natural adjunct of the d$.ta bases
  in the Euronet network , which will be upgraded and extended to European
                  •      ,!    '                        :» !
  and non-European users as a result ;
– Finally , the Community institutions will be able to adapt Eurotra to their
  own particular translation requirements .             I i
                            :1   •                         I.
Implementation
 - To give maximum efficiency , Eurotra will be established in close cooperation
   between the Commission , the authorities and research institutes of the
   Member States , and the European information processing industry *
 – The specifications cover the preparation of
        • a complete analysis software for each language ,                    ^
        • a complete synthesis software for each language ,
        • a multilingual lexical data base
        • a transfer mechanism for all the language pairs and
        • a common modular basic software .
 – The development and operation will be made the responsibility of a coordinating
    centre for each centre or language , which will distribute the work between
    specialist institutes and ensure compatibility and quality . To this end , the
    Commission will ensure that the objectives relating to portability and compliance
    with international standards are accurately reflected in the specifications .
 - The working programme will be the subject of a series of contracts of
    association between the Commission and the specialist institutes of the
    Member States .
 ---pagebreak--- It will be carried out with the assistance of an Advisory Committee including
representatives of all the bodies concerned :
The work is to be financed jointly by the Member States and from the
Community budget , and the Commission will be responsible for producing the
information processing components and assembling the system ;
The Commission will be guided by the advice of the scientific and Technical
Research Committee ( CREST) and the Committee of Experts for the Transfer
of Information between Community Languages ( CETIL ).
The proposed budget is :
                                                        millions of EUA
                           1 st   2nd    3rd    4-th   5th       Total
                           year   year  year    year   year
Contributions of the
Member States              0,6    0.8    1,2    1,2    1,2        5,0
Community share of the
expenditure of the
national centres           0,3    0,4   0,6     0,6    0,6        2,5
Direct Community
expenditure                1,3    1,5   0,8     0,8    0,8        5,2
          Total            2,2    2,7    2,6    2,6    2,6       12,7
 ---pagebreak---                         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 Council of the European Communities ,
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community,
and in particular Article 235 thereof ;
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission ;
Having regard to the opinion of the European Parliament ;                    -
Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and Social Committee.;
Whereas , under Article 2 of the Treaty , one of the Commission 's tasks is to
promote throughout the Community a harmonious development of economic
activities , a continuous and balanced expansion and an increase in stability ;
Whereas the multilingual nature of the European Community is of high
cultural value , but is also in practice an obstacle to closer ties between
the peoples of the Community , to communications and to the development of
 the internal and external trade of the Community ;
Whereas the benefits of teleinformatics and of communication and information
networks cannot be fully reaped at Community level unless the language barrier
is overcome ;
Whereas the development of computational linguistics is likely to contribute
 to the overcoming of this barrier ;
 Whereas considerable research has already been carried out on this subject
 in the Member States ;
 ---pagebreak---                                                                                yt(,
                               -2 -
Whereas this research , by its very nature , can only bear fruit provided
     that it is supported by a Community action which would , among other
     things , have a catalytic effect on work already carried out ;
                                                  • r-                       n
Whereas such Community action can , in particular , consist in the creation of
     a European machine translation system of advanced design ;       ■
                                                       I  »       '•
       k
Whereas such a system would have numerous industrial applications and be of
     direct benefit , inter alia , to the various industrial - sectors and ,
     in particular, to exporting industries ;
         v
Whereas the preliminary work already completed has demonstrated the
     technical feasibility of such a system ; ,
Whereas a Community research and development programme on machine transla­
     tion is therefore likely to make an effective contribution to the
     achievement of the above objectives of the Treaty ;
Whereas the Treaty has not provided the necessary powers to this end ;
Whereas the Scientific and Technical Research Committee ( CREST ) has
      delivered an opinion on the Commission 's proposal ;
                          HAS DECIDED AS FOLLOWS :
 Article 1
     A research and development programme for the creation of a machine
 translation system of advanced design is hereby adopted for a period of five
 years commencing on *
     The content of the programme is described in the Annex hereto .
 ---pagebreak---                                                                           ■φ
                                                                                   A
                                    - 3 -
Article 2
       The expenditure required for the execution of the programme is estimated
at 7.7 million EUA ( 1979 value ); personnel requirements are estimated at
16 persons .
       These figures are given for guidance purposes only ; the funds needed to
execute the programme shall be determined every year by the budgetary          -
procedure .
Article 3
       The Commission shall be responsible for the execution of the programme , in parti
cular by means of research contracts . It shall be assisted by an Advisory Committee
on Programme Management , the membership and terms of reference of which are
set out in the Council "Resolution of 18 July 1977 on advisory committees ,
on research programme management / 1 ^.               >.   ^
       The Commission shall inform the CREST at regular intervals on the progress
of the work# Furthermore , the Commission shall submit an annual report to
the Council and to the European Parliament concerning the execution of the
programme . '                     '                "                            .
Article 4
       The dissemination of information resulting from the execution of the
programme shall be effected in accordance with Council Regulation ( EEC )
No 2380/74 of 17 September 1974 adopting provisions for the dissemination
of knowledge relating to research programmes for the European Economic
             (2}
Communityx ' •
Article 5
        In accordance with Article 228 of the Treaty , the Community may conclude
agreements with third countries on their participation in the research
programme which is the subject of the present Decision .
        The Commission i s hereby authorized to negotiate such agreements .
■                                       \
  ( l ) OJ No C 192 of 11 August 1977 , p. 1
  ( 2 ) OJ No L 255 of 20 September 1974 , p. 1
 ---pagebreak---                                                               Annex   to the Council decision
 Objectives
 The objective of the project is the creation of a computer-aided, translation system
 capable of dealing with all official languages of the Community .
          I             ' ;            "       •   .
.Programme of work                                                                            4
 The programme of work includes the following elements :
 - The development of an analysis module for each language , which will carry out
    ■morphological , syntactic and logi co-semantic analysis of source text to the levels
     specified by the definition of the commonly agreed interface structure .
- The development of a generation module for each language , which will be able
     to accept an interface structure of the type commonly agreed and generate from
     it a surface representation in that language ,
                                                          ■P
- The development of a transfer module for each language couple , whioh will take as
     input an interface structure of the ;type commonly agreed , derived from an analysis
     of the source text , . and produce from it an interface structure df the same type ,
     from which the target text may be generated .
- The compilation of monolingual dictionaries in two steps :
     a ) an initial test dictionary for each language , to be' used both in analysis and
          in generation , comprising approximately 2 500 entries in a specific subject
        - field :
    b ) an expanded monolingual dictionary, whose finai size will be approximately 20,000
          entries .
– The compilation of a multilingual lexical data base for use in the transfer phase ,
     in two stages as for the monolingual dictionaries .
- The development of a basic software package , including support software for dictionary
     handling and updating as well as software capable of dealing with the analysis ,
     transfer and generation modules described above . This will include interpreter compi­
     ler programmes for the specially defined high-level definition language in which
     grammars and dictionaries are to be written .
- The development of the software for the user-system interface , by which the different
     modules may be combined into integrated systems corresponding to the various user
     options defined .                     *
– The Commission will ensure that the objectives relating to portability and
     compliance with international standards are accurately reflected in the
  • spécifications .