The European Commission has today announced the winners of its annual translation contest ‘Juvenes Translatores’. A total of 28 secondary school students, one from each of the European Union Member States, will be awarded a prize after competing with over 3 000 participants from across the continent. The winners will be invited to Brussels on 14 April 2016 to receive their trophies from European Commission Vice-President Kristalina Georgieva.

‘My congratulations to all the winners of this year’s competition, who excelled against some stiff competition for the top slot in their country. Every year, Juvenes Translatores gives students a chance to test their language skills and try their hand at translation, a valuable skill in our multilingual Union,’ Vice-President Georgieva said.

The students had to translate texts on the topic of development cooperation. The theme was chosen to mark the 2015 European Year of Development. The participants could choose from any of the 552 possible combinations between any two of the EU’s 24 official languages. This year, students used 166 language combinations, including translating from Czech into Italian, from Maltese into Dutch, and from Danish into Polish. All winners chose to translate into their strongest language, as the official translators in EU institutions do.

The Juvenes Translatores (Latin for ‘young translators’) contest has been organised every year since 2007 by the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Translation. Its aim is to promote language learning in schools and give young people a taste of what it is like to be a translator. It is open to 17-year old secondary school pupils (for those born in 1998, for this year’s contest) and takes place at the same time in all selected schools across the EU, including in its outermost regions. The contest has inspired and encouraged some of the participants to pursue their languages at university level and to become translators.