Policies in favour of increasing the translation of Arabic works into European languages are essential to the promotion of cultural relations between Arabs and Europeans, according to a pioneering report produced by the Anna Lindh Euro-Mediterranean Foundation for Dialogue between Cultures.

 

According to an Anna Lindh Foundation press release, the conclusions and recommendations of the study will pave the way for a new Euro-Mediterranean strategy aimed at promoting intercultural dialogue between societies and strengthening a common identity based on cultural diversity.

 

Speaking at the official launch of the report in Brussels this week, Andreu Claret, Executive Director of the Anna Lindh Foundation, said that "improving translations between Arabic and European languages is so crucial for overcoming the clash of ignorance existing in the Mediterranean region that the European Union and the institutions of the Union for the Mediterranean should launch a long-term and sustainable programme on this issue".

Xavier Troussard, Head of the Culture Policy, Diversity and Intercultural Dialogue Unit of the European Union, added that, "promoting translations among European and other Mediterranean languages must be a central issue for any cultural policy in this region and for the EuroMed political dialogue".

 

The two-year study involved 16 partner organisations from the Euro-Mediterranean region as well as a great number of translators and researchers. The final report, entitled ‘A Mapping of Translation in the Euro-Mediterranean region’ and carried out in partnership with the Paris-based Transeuropéennes - a non-profit association that has developed an interdisciplinary notion of translating between cultures - reveals that in the European Union’s countries only 1 out of 1,000 translated books comes from Arabic. In France, for example, Arabic is the source for less than 0.65% of translated books; in the last 25 years, there have been just 1,065 books translated from Arabic. From a comparative perspective, across the Mediterranean, 35,000 books in the last 25 years have been translated from European languages into Arabic, with the majority of works having English as the main source language.

 

The Anna Lindh Foundation for Inter-Cultural Dialogue promotes knowledge, mutual respect and inter-cultural dialogue between the people of the Euro-Mediterranean region, working through a network of more than 3,000 civil society organisations in 43 countries. Its budget is co-funded by the EU (€7 million) and the EU member states (€6 million). (EU Neighbourhood Info)

 

  

 

  

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Anna Lindh Foundation – website

EU Neighbourhood Info Centre - Translation across the Mediterranean: Anna Lindh Foundation to present study in Brussels