Vieno langelio sistema – Europos Sąjungos teisės aktų projektų lietuvių kalba terminų derinimo su Lietuvos Respublikos institucijomis priemonė
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127Terminologija | 2015 | 22 Vieno langelio sistema – europos Sąjungos teisės aktų projektų lietuvių kalba terminų coordination with the authorities of the Republic of Lithuania EGIDIJUS ZAIKAUSKAS European Commission KEY WORDS: one-stop-shop system, time management, time harmonization, legislation, European Union institutions, State bodies of the Republic of Lithuania One of the most important criteria for the quality of legislation is good and properly used terminology. Several hundred European Union translators who translate eS legislative proposals and other eS documents into Lithuanian are guided by this credo in their daily work. Due to the specificity of eS texts – the legal and political importance of the documents, the many areas of politics, economy, social life and technology covered, the frequent introduction of new concepts, etc. – translators of eS institutions are constantly faced with various terminological problems: creating or selecting terms denoting new concepts, evaluating variants of terms and synonyms and selecting the most appropriate ones, harmonizing terminology from different systems, etc. Lithuanian experts are often called upon to clarify a complex concept or to help choose the most appropriate term for the concept. Terminological problems are of varying severity, as well as the importance of different concepts and terms that denote them in the legislation and in the entire legal system. Some problematic terms concern many subjects: not only the eS institution that prepared the legislation and other eS institutions eS institucijoms, bet ir tos srities Lietuvos Respublikos valstybės įstaigoms, nes kai kurie eS priimti teisės aktai tiesiogiai taikomi valstybėse narėse, participating in the eS legislative process, thus also in Lithuania, while the provisions of others have to be enshrined in the legislation by Lithuanian state bodies. Therefore, it is very important that the terminology of eS and Lithuanian legislation should be as consistent as possible. Most of the draft eS legislation in Lithuanian language is checked by experts through Lithuania’s eS membership
128 egidijus Zaikauskas One-Stop-Shop System – European Union Legal System aktųprojektųlietuviųkalbaterminųderinimo suLietuvosRespublikosinstitucijomispriemonė (LiNeSiS)1. However, due to very short deadlines, this is often only a superficial examination and only one expert (personal) opinion is provided2. To solve the more complex terminology problems of eS legislation, a more specific mechanism is needed, which would cover most of the entities involved in the eS legislative process – both eS and Lithuanian institutions – and would allow to adopt as harmonized decisions as possible. Such a mechanism for timing eS draft legislation is the One Stop Shop (OSS)3. Furthermore, the article presents the analysis of the one-stop shop system, the facts of the system’s development, its operation, VLS queries are analyzed, terminology trends are compared in the Lithuanian language units of eS institutions and in the state agencies of the Republic of Lithuania. CONSTRUCTION OF THE VLS In 2009, the Lithuanian Language Department of the Directorate General for Translation of the European Commission raised the idea of creating a mechanism that would help harmonize terms both within the eS institutions and with the Lithuanian institutions, and by using which the Lithuanian language translation units of the eS institutions could more easily obtain an authoritative and harmonized opinion of Lithuanian experts on the most complex concepts of the eS legislative drafts. At the time, the systems for terminological coordination of draft eS legislation with national authorities were in place in the Swedish and Finnish translation services of the European Commission4. In 2010, after the agreement and harmonization of the basic principles between the eS and the Lithuanian institutions, a one-stop-shop system was introduced – the “European Union institutional portal”. On the website of the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania http://www.lrs.lt/intl/presidency. show?theme=201&lang=1&doc=630 (accessed 2015-07-20). 2 For LiNeSiS comments on eS draft legislation in Lithuanian, see 2012 Lucknow. 3 The article also relies on the ideas of the joint presentation of the author and Audra ivanauskienė (State Lithuanian Language Commission) “One-stop shop system – a means of solving the most complex terminological problems of European Union documents in Lithuanian language”, read on June 4, 2015, at the conference “Scientific, administrative and educational terminology equivalents” of the International Joint Lithuanian Terminology Forum (LTF) and the Lithuanian Language Institute. The slides of the presentation are published on the LTF website http://ec.europa.eu/translation/lithuanian/ltf/index_en.htm (accessed 2015-07-20). 4 How the eS Institutions Finnish Terminology Harmonisation System (eSKO) works: eS Institutions translators send requests to the Finnish Government Terminology Service by e-mail. It decides to which ministry to forward requests. Two system coordinators are appointed in each ministry. They decide to which experts in the ministry to forward translators’ requests and send the answers received from the experts to the Terminology Service, which forwards them to the translators of the eS institutions. It is possible to consult the Finnish Language Institute on language issues at the time of the request. Furthermore, upon receipt of a reply, the translators can consult directly with the experts who submitted it. See more about eSKO. Kuhmonen 2011.
129Terminology | 2015 | 22 Lithuanian language translation units of the 22 Lithuanian language translation units of the 22 Lithuanian language translation units of the 22 Lithuanian language translation units of the 22 Lithuanian language translation units of the 22 Lithuanian language eS institucijose VLS veikimas grindžiamas lietuvių kalbos vertimo padalinių susitarimu. Sistemoje dalyvauja aštuonios eS institucijos: europos translation units of the 22 Lithuanian language translation units of the 22 Lithuanian language translation units of the 22 Lithuanian language translation units of the 22 Lithuanian language translation units of the 22 Lithuanian language translation units of the 22 Lithuanian language translation units of the 22 Lithuanian language translation units of the 22 Lithuanian language translation units of the 22 Lithuanian language translation units of the 22 Lithuanian language translation units of the 22 Lithuanian language translation units of the 22 Lithuanian language translation units of the 22 Lithuanian language translation units of the 22 Lithuanian language translation units of the 22 Lithuanian language translation units of the 22 Lithuanian language translation units of the 22 Lithuanian language translation units of the 22 Lithuanian language translation units of the 22 Lithuanian language translation units of the 22 (VLKK), tam ji naudojasi Lietuvos Respublikos terminų banko organizacine sistema, o „terminų derinimą valstybės institucijose ir įstaigose Lithuanian language translation units of the 22 Lithuanian language translation units of the 22 Lithuanian language translation units of the 22 Lithuanian language translation units of the 22 Lithuanian language translation units of the 22 Lithuanian language translation units of the 22 Lithuanian language translation units of the 22 Lithuanian language translation units of the 22 Lithuanian language translation units of the 22 Lithuanian language translation units of the 22 Lithuanian language translation units of the 22 Lithuanian language translation units of the 22 Lithuanian language translation units of the 22 Lithuanian language translation units The Commission, the European Parliament, the Council of the European Union, the Court of Justice of the European Union, the European Central Bank, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions, the European Court of Auditors and the Translation Centre for the Bodies of the European Union. The legal basis for the operation of this system in Lithuania is the Decree No. 998 of the Government of the Republic of Lithuania of 7 July 2010 “On the coordination of terms of draft European Union legislative acts in Lithuanian language”, which establishes “the procedure for coordination of terms of draft legislative acts in Lithuanian language received from European Union institutions with ministries, government agencies and agencies attached to ministries, state scientific research institutions that participate in the process of adoption and implementation of eS legislation [...]” (Decree No. 998, point 1). The State Lithuanian Language Commission, appointed by this Decree as the coordinating Lithuanian authority, shall organize the terminology commissions operating within it” (Decree No. 998, point 2). FUNCTIONING ORDER OF THE NLS VLS requests are prepared for problematic terms in translations of draft eS legislation into Lithuanian. When a terminological problem cannot be solved on its own, a VLS request is prepared based on the document to be translated. Translators and terminologists from Lithuanian translation units of all eight eS institutions participating in the system (hereinafter referred to as eS institutions translators) are included in the consideration of the problem, as well as the VLKK and the state and scientific institutions of the Republic of Lithuania in the field of the query concept (hereinafter referred to as experts of the Republic of Lithuania). VLKK is the one-stop shop in Lithuania that receives VLS requests from eS translators, forwards them to the relevant Lithuanian institutions, collects their proposals, discusses them with their representatives and submits the final proposal for the problematic concept to eS translators. All communication takes place by e-mail.
130 egidijus Zaikauskas One-stop shop system – European Union law If the term aktųprojektųlietuviųkalbaterminųderinimo suLietuvosRespublikosinstitucijomispriemonė proposed by the experts of the Republic of Lithuania is approved by all eS institutions5, it is entered into the translated document, and detailed terminological data is provided in the eS institutions’ term database iATe. Terms agreed through the VLS are assigned the highest level of confidence, four, in iATe. If the harmonised term is from a legislative act in the adoption of which more than one eS institution6 is involved, the information about it is also entered in the electronic information file of the translated legislative act in the eLiSe system (Language Information Storage and Exchange System of eS Institutions). This information is provided directly to the translators of the different eS institutions working on that document and to the lawyer-linguists of the Council and the European Parliament. All query data: the query submitted to eS institutions for consideration, the query sent to the WCTC, the WCTC response and the final decision of eS institutions are published and archived on the eS institutional terminology website eurTerm7. Unfortunately, terms agreed between eS and Lithuanian institutions through the one-stop-shop system do not enter the Lithuanian term bank. This should be taken care of by the terminology commissions of the state institutions of the Republic of Lithuania – they should submit the appropriate proposal to the VLKK. The reasons why eS translators need VLS queries are identified by the three-letter abbreviation SKP – lack, error, excess. In essence, the following reasons are the basis of any normative terminological work: 1) lack of terms – there is no official Lithuanian term, a new concept must be named; 2) errors in terms – the existing Lithuanian term (or several terms) is incorrect; 3) excess of terms – in several official sources the same concept is referred to by different terms. 5 When the VLS system was developed, there was no provision for what to do if the offer for eS translators of institutions is unacceptable. Only in 2015 the translators of the eS institutions agreed that if any eS institution reasonably disagrees with the proposal of the experts of the Republic of Lithuania, it prepares a repeat request and the procedure is repeated again. 6 Most often these are regulations and directives of the European Parliament and the Council, whose proposals are often translated by translators of the European Commission. 7 The list of OSS queries with basic data is available on the LTF website http://ec.europa.eu/ translation/lithuanian/ltf/documents/ltf_oss_statistics_lt.pdf (accessed 2015-07-20).
131Terminologija | 2015 | 22 1. Lack of time limits Requests for new concepts are perhaps the most common. Many eS texts contain concepts that have not been named in Lithuanian terms, and in some texts there are dozens of such new concepts. to explain and identify it, e.g.: VLS užklausos teikiamos tik tuo atveju, jei sąvoka yra labai svarbi arba kebli, pavyzdžiui, labai siauros srities, ir reikia ypatingų ekspertinių žinių genomic breeding value, proximity hosting, cross-margining, naked short selling, etc. It is true that a new term does not always mean that there was no Lithuanian equivalent for the term before the request was submitted. For example, when collecting data for the query for the English term viral video, more than one Lithuanian equivalent was found on the Internet: viral klipas, virusinis video, virusinis vaizdo klipas.But until then the term had not been included in any legal act, dictionary or any other reliable, official source, and in internet texts the term was named by borrowed or literal values. The aim of the query is to select or create a correct Lithuanian term that accurately conveys this relatively new concept. In this case, the Latvian experts agreed with the term proposed by eS translators – spread video (request COM-2011-08). Quite often, new concepts are introduced by simply copying, translating or even borrowing terms from another language, usually English. In both cases, the identical conceptual features are identified in both languages, thus ensuring that the content of the English and Lithuanian language versions of eS legislation is identical in a relatively simple way. There are many such terms, apparently completely equivalent to other languages, established through the VLS, for example: environmental dumping, repatriation of profit, modified livevirus vaccine, etc. This does not mean, of course, that the terms of different languages that refer to the same concept cannot be equivalent if they refer to different characteristics, since the relationship between the term and the concept is essentially conventional. Sometimes the internal motivation of the term is not sufficient to link it to a concept, institutional legitimacy is also necessary, for example, the GLS agreement and / or the approval of the GFCM. The VLKK word is also decisive when the VLS queries propose to expand the meanings of words, for example by analogy with other fields
132 egidijus Zaikauskas One-stop shop – the European Union’s right to legalize a aktųprojektųlietuviųkalbaterminųderinimo suLietuvosRespublikosinstitucijomispriemonė new meaning of the international word. Although such requests are not frequent, it can be seen that eS translators have already proposed to give a new vartojamiems žodžiams linkę labiau nei VLKK terminologai. Pavyzdžiui, meaning to the word genocide in Lithuanian and to legalize the terms gender genocide (gendercide), women’s genocide (feminicide), girl’s genocide (femail infanticide). The ICRC rejected the proposal and proposed to use the terms gender-related murder, gender-related murder of women and gender-related murder of girls, respectively (questions eP-2013-01-03). The request of the eS translators to expand the meaning of the word carbon into the term low-carbon economy was also not accepted by the Lithuanian experts. Experts of the Republic of Lithuania proposed the term low-carbon economy, which basically meant a return to 2007, when in coordination with experts of the Republic of Lithuania the term (gas) emission in eS documents was replaced by the term (gas) emission, which eventually took hold in eS legislation. Therefore, in the eS institutions it was decided not to accept the proposal of the experts of the Republic of Lithuania, but, taking into account the arguments against the extension of the meaning of the word “coal”, the proposed term “low-carbon economy” was also abandoned. In looser texts, translators are advised to use a shorter and more fluid version of low-carbon economy, which is expected to be adopted in the long term in the legal language as well. (Query COM-2014-08). Experts of the Republic of Lithuania also rejected the proposal of eS reikšmę: nepatvirtino termino kūrybinisturinys(angl. creativecontent), reiškiančio kūrinių (dažniausiai meno), sukurtų naudojant multimedijas, translators to extend the word content computers or communication technologies, the whole or the information contained in such works together with the form of presentation. Since the experts of the Republic of Lithuania did not submit a specific proposal for this concept, the draft eS legislation included the term proposed by eS translators. It has also been Keliais atvejais per VLS siūlytam reikšmės išplėtimui VLKK terminologai ir LR ekspertai vis dėlto pritarė. Pavyzdžiui, patvirtinta nauja lig tol tik incorporated into public texts (Query COM-2013-06). The meaning of the term co-location used in the fields of finance and philology is “a service that ensures an extremely high-speed connection to the exchange by storing and maintaining a company’s server in a data center that also contains servers of other companies, in particular exchanges” (request eP-2014-04).
133Terminology | 2015 | 22 Before joining the European Union in 2004, Lithuania had to adopt the basic eS legislation. For this they had to be translated into Lithuanian. There was a large amount of eS legislation to be translated and the terminology used was not always the most appropriate. Inappropriate terms, such as those that incorrectly indicate the characteristics of the concept or do not indicate important characteristics or are not compatible with the terminology system of the field, also occur in legislation translated after accession to eS. When adopting a new version of a legislative act, inappropriate terms can sometimes be corrected, replaced with good ones, but it is necessary that all interested parties, as well as the institutions of the Republic of Lithuania, learn about such changing terms. Even better, if the new terms are adopted by consensus of all parties. Therefore, VLS requests are prepared for important changing terms used in eS legislation. In the very first VLS request (COM-2011-01), it was agreed to replace the non-systematic term feed business operator with the more appropriate term feed business operator, and to replace the closely related term food business operator with the term food business operator. In 2013, the VLKK reported that experts had requested the return of the old term food business operator. The main reason is that the term was used in the certificates of approval of food handling entities, the form of which was approved by the Ministry, and thousands of certificate forms were printed. Due to the changed official (although not ideal) deadline, the forms would have had to be reprinted, which would have caused the Ministry a considerable financial loss. Another example of an inappropriate term is the pebble-bed reactor. It seems that this literally translated Lithuanian term corresponds to the English term, is semantically transparent and systematic, but because of the primary meaning of the compound ball bearing – “support of shafts or rotating axes, consisting of two rings and balls between them” (AGTTŽ 2006) misleading: it is a gas-cooled nuclear reactor, whose ball-shaped heat elements are held on a certain substrate (bearing, bed!). The term spherical thermal cell reactor was agreed during the LSI (request COM-2011-05). Literal translation is one of the most common causes of semantic errors in terms. The term "urban mining" was used in eS documents as a literal translation of the English term "urban mining", although the concept of mining
134 egidijus Zaikauskas One-stop-shop system – European Union law has little to aktųprojektųlietuviųkalbaterminųderinimo suLietuvosRespublikosinstitucijomispriemonė do with it: “extraction of secondary raw materials from landfills, as well as specialized ones, e.g. construction materials, demolition buildings, household appliances, waste.” The final deadline for recovery from urban waste was agreed through the VLS (request eP-2012-03). Sometimes the term becomes inappropriate when the concept itself changes. Until 2011, the eS legislation included both total catches and catch carried ashore by fishing vessels. Fish caught that were not suitable – too small or of invaluable species – or injured were immediately thrown back into the sea. This caused severe damage to the nature. In order to make fishing more sustainable, a regulation has been adopted which requires that the total amount of fish caught be equal to the catch. Therefore, during the term of the MSY, the term maximum sustainable yield (MSY) was replaced by the term maximum sustainability yield (MSY). jyboslaimikis (užklausa COM-2011-11). Keisti terminą gali prireikti ir pasikeitus tarptautinei nomenklatūrai. On 30 May 2012, the IUPAC decided to change the name of element 114 from ununquadium to flerovium, in honor of the Russian physicist Georgii Fliorov, and to change the name of element 116 from ununhexium to livermorium, in honor of the Livermore National Laboratory. Therefore, the VLS Language Commission was asked to legalize the Lithuanian names of these elements, flerovis and livermoris, which were unconditionally approved by LR experts and the VLKK. COM-2012-10 and COM-2012-11). 3. Excess time During the 11 years of Lithuania’s membership in eS and before that, thousands of eS documents were translated into Lithuanian. Due to the urgency of the work, not all of their terms were consistently checked by terminologists and coordinated with other eS and LR institutions. Therefore, it happens that the same concept is referred to with different terms in documents of different institutions or even of the same institution. When such a term appears in a new draft legislation, it is difficult for the Kartais pasirinkimą lemia formalūs teisiniai kriterijai: • privalu paisyti teisinio nuoseklumo – įgyvendinimo teisės akte turi translator to decide which term to use. use the same terms as in the framework, • priority is given to eS contracts and regulations, decisions and directives governing this field,
135Terminology | 2015 | 22 • eS legislation has priority over national legislation, • the expert opinion of the expert who has been involved in the eS Council on the draft legislation is taken into account in the first place. It is also examined whether the imperfect but correct term has not entered into public usage, whether it is not used in nomenclature, whether it is not related to trademarks, etc. However, when the above criteria are not restrictive, it is not easy to select the best term from several or all synonyms of the fiber. in special cases, the experts of the Republic of Latvia are called upon. In the eP-2014-07 inquiry, experts were asked which of the many synonyms best describes the term key performance indicator. Rengdami užklausą eS vertėjai atrado per dešimt sinonimų ir variantų: pagrindiniaiveiklosrezultatųrodikliai,pagrindiniai veiklosrezultatųvertinimorodikliai,pagrindiniaiveiksmingumorodikliai, pagrindiniaiveiksmingumorezultatųrodikliai,pagrindiniairezultatųrodikliai, pagrindiniairezultatyvumorodikliai,pagrindiniaiefektyvumorodikliai,svarbiausiejiveiklosrodikliai,esminiaiveiklosrodikliai,įmonėsveiklosvertinimo rodikliai,pagrindinisveiklosrodiklis (eS vertėjų siūlymas) ir kt. Legal criteria and usage trends did not allow to give preference to any one, so both eS translators and LR experts first looked for a term that as accurately as possible identified the concept. True, most of the synonyms discovered denoted the unitary concept, and the legislation required an indicator as an accounting unit. With the experts of the Republic of Lithuania it was agreed to use the term main performance indicator. There are many synonyms even for technical terms that seem to be quite specific, for example, for the English term loop flow, 9 Lithuanian equivalents were found in different sources: parallel flow, current supply on surrounding lines, uncoordinated energy ring flow, electrical flow flowing on surrounding power lines, uncoordinated flow, energy transfer on surrounding lines, current flow on surrounding lines, circle current, surrounding flow (Suggestion of the translators of ES). LR experts proposed to use the term ring flow. According to energy
142 egidijus Zaikauskas One-stop-shop system – European Union law negotiated aktųprojektųlietuviųkalbaterminųderinimo suLietuvosRespublikosinstitucijomispriemonė governance), horizontal governance (or horizontal governance), non-hierarchical governance (or non-hierarchical governance), intergovernment, but none of them found a place in eS texts, and eS translators usually choose the term governance, which is less precise in terms of semantics, but simpler (request Council-2011-01). Similar problems have been caused by the macroeconomic concepts, which are metaphorically referred to as cradle-to-gate, gate-to-grave, cradle-to-grave, life cycle. On the request to establish official terms and to clarify whether several terms do not mean one concept, the experts of the Republic of Lithuania replied: “The term provided in the legislation of the Republic of Lithuania (the Lithuanian English equivalent of cradle-to-grave) is not used, therefore it is not relevant, and the concept itself is unclear.” (Response to Inquiry COM-2013-09.) Nevertheless, even in such ambiguous cases, experts try to help translators. Since Lithuanian administrative and scientific language avoids translational metaphors, in this case several variants were proposed, directly naming some important features of the concepts: cradle-to-grave – the whole cycle, the cycle from (raw material) extraction to the end of (product) life, (raw material) extraction–end of (product) cycle; ‘cradle-to-gate’ means the pre-production stage, the stage from (raw material) extraction to (product) production, the stage from (raw material) extraction to (product) start-up; gate-to-grave: post-production, from (product) production to end of (life) cycle, (product) production-end of (life) cycle (Query COM-2013-09-12). Detailed analysis of the completed VLS requests reveals some differences in the handling of terms in the eS and in the institutions of the Republic of Lithuania. One of the striking differences is that the terms proposed by LR experts often have more elements than the terms proposed by eS translators for the same concept. The average length of terms proposed by eS translators9 is 2.77 points, and by LR experts – 3.28 points (Figure 3). Thus, the terms suggested by LR experts are on average 16% longer than the terms provided by eS translators for the same concepts10. 9 The deadlines of those requests are calculated where the proposals of eS translators and LR experts do not coincide. Official words are not counted in Lithuanian or English terms. 10 The figures are not absolutely accurate, as both eS translators and LR experts have suggested several synonyms for some concepts.
143Terminologija | 2015 | 22 3 pav. Vidutinis ES terminologų ir LR ekspertų pasiūlytų nesutapusių terminų ir jų anglų kalbos atitikmenų ilgumas The terms suggested by both LR experts and eS translators are considerably longer than the English equivalents (see Figure 3). This distinction is quite logical veikiausiai lemia tiek skirtinga kalbų struktūra, tiek terminologijos tradiand is explained, for example, by the avoidance of terminological metaphors in Lithuanian. Although the facts are not so numerous that generalizations can be made, looking not only at the number of elements, but also at their semantics, it can be seen that eS translators take more into account the terms of the original language, tend to copy their structure more and use Lithuanian terms to mark the same conceptual characteristics as the original language, mainly English, term11. This can be explained by both formal and subjective reasons. On the one hand, the aim is to ensure that all language versions of the eS legislation identify the terms equivalently, since it is believed that the best principle of terminology management in the global language space is the international concept and the national expression: the terms in different languages identify the same characteristics of the concept. On the other hand, the attachment to English terms is sometimes caused by the inability to break away from the original and limited knowledge of the concept: people do not dare to use Lithuanian words to name other characteristics of the concept than those in the original language. For experts who are better acquainted with the concepts, English terms are less likely to become a hindrance, more attention is paid to the accuracy of the term, therefore other features of the concept are more freely chosen as the semantic basis of the term. 11 For more information on the relationship between the terms created by eS translators and the original language terms, see Zaikauskas 2014.
144 egidijus Zaikauskas One-stop-shop system – European Union law Table 2 presents a series of aktųprojektųlietuviųkalbaterminųderinimo suLietuvosRespublikosinstitucijomispriemonė examples illustrating the trends in the creation of terms by eS translators and LR experts. Table 2. Comparison of terms proposed by EU translators and LR experts naming the same concept, LR experts proposed terms longer English language term eS translators proposal LR experts proposal material communication chain communication chain information transmission chain emerging economies emerging economies emerging market economies non-return rate cow feminicide moterųgenocidas moterųžudymasdėllyties permanentmaterial ilgalaikėmedžiaga daugkartinionaudojimo herd fertilization index power-to-gas electricity conversion to gas use of electricity for gas production low carbon economy low carbon economy low carbon emission economy note issuance facility note issuance instrument term debt securities shortand medium-term securities subscription instrument clinical trial clinical trial intervention clinical trial of a medicinal product There were fewer cases when LR experts offered shorter terms. Almost all of them are examples not of narrowing the concept, but of language economy (Table 3). Table 3. Comparison of terms proposed by EU translators and terms proposed by Lithuanian experts for the same concept, terms proposed by Lithuanian experts are shorter English term eS translators' proposal Lithuanian experts' proposal foster dam surrogate nursing mother substitute nursing mother exorbitant jurisdiction unreasonably broad jurisdiction excessive jurisdiction life cycle thinking life cycle based approach life cycle principle Overall, the experts did not accept more than half of the proposals of eS translators and suggested other terms. Most of the terms proposed by the experts of the Republic of Lithuania (72 out of 86) were accepted and included in the draft eS documents (Figure 4).
145Terminologija | 2015 | 22 Figure 4. Matching of EU translators and Lithuanian experts (%) What happens when the proposals of eS translators and Lithuanian experts do not match? Usually, the translators of eS institutions accept the suggestions of Latvian experts and, if not too late, enter the deadlines in the draft legislative acts to be translated. However, sometimes the proposals of the experts of the Republic of Lithuania are not accepted because of changed circumstances in the eS legislative process, changed concepts during the document processing, additional information about the concept, etc. A total of 11 (7.9 %) such cases, together with cases where experts did not submit a proposal, were reported. For example, in 2012 the VLS coordinated the microsystem of four concepts of Regulation (EU) No 536/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council on clinical trials of medicinal products for human use: clinical trial, clinical study, clinical investigation and clinical research (request COM-2012-24). According to the terms proposed by Lithuanian experts, intervention nikinisvaistiniopreparatotyrimas,klinikinismedicinosprietaisotyrimas ir biomedicininistyrimas eS vertėjai pritarė. Tačiau per tolesnius teisės akto clinical trial of a medicinal product, two of the agreed terms were changed, in the final text of the regulation in Lithuanian language, at the request of Lithuanian experts participating in the Council meetings, the terms clinical trial and clinical study were inserted instead of the terms intervention clinical trial of a medicinal product and clinical trial of a medicinal product, and the term clinical investigation of a medical device disappeared from the text altogether. Until April 2015, no procedure was established on how eS institutions should act if the deadline proposed by the experts of the Republic of Lithuania is not 51,4 % 7,9 % 2,1 % 38,6 %
146 egidijus Zaikauskas One-stop shop – European Union law cannot be included in a aktųprojektųlietuviųkalbaterminųderinimo suLietuvosRespublikosinstitucijomispriemonė draft legislative act. It has now been agreed that in such a case a re-request will be made, explaining the changed circumstances and requesting a re-examination of the concept. Between April and June 2015, three proposals were received from the Republic of Lithuania, for which it was decided to submit repeated requests. met for one reason or another CONCLUSIONS The operation of the system for coordinating terms of draft eS legislation in Lithuanian language with experts of the state and scientific institutions of the Republic of Lithuania is based on sending terminological information via one channel and gradual coordination of opinions. Although this creates a more complex terminology alignment structure and takes longer, the reliability of the agreed terms is increased. There are three main reasons for the need to harmonise deadlines through the VMS: lack of deadlines, errors in deadlines and excess deadlines. These three factors are characteristic of any normative terminology. On the other hand, in the one-stop-shop system textual terminology features are also prominent, because both for formal provisions and for practical prastai siejamos su konkrečiais eS teisės aktų projektais. Sąvokos siejimas su konkrečiu tekstu padeda lengviau nustatyti jos sritį ir ją apibrėžti, tačiau needs the concept of VLS queries repeatedly limits the possibility of using the harmonised term in other texts. The benefit of coordinating terms with Lithuanian experts is demonstrated by the fact that more than half of all agreed terms are proposals of Lithuanian experts. Despite some limitations, which result in a relatively small number of coordinated terms, the developed coordination of terms through VLS is a good example and a solid basis for the development of other similar coordination systems. The analysis of the requests submitted during the five and a half years of the system’s operation reveals certain trends in terminology management in Lithuanian language translation departments of eS institutions and in state and scientific institutions of the Republic of Lithuania. For example, when choosing a Lithuanian term eS translators are more respectful of the term structure of the original language and use the Lithuanian term for the same characteristics as in English. This is not only for language economy, but also for the greatest possible harmony of terms in different languages. Experts in Latvia are less attached to the equivalents of other languages and are more concerned about more accurately conveying the concept, indicating the most important characteristics of the term, which do not necessarily correspond to the equivalents of other languages. Therefore, the terms proposed by LR experts are on average 16% longer than those proposed by eS translators.
147Terminology | 2015 | 22 SOURCES AGTTŽ – Juškaitė N., Keinys St., Sakalauskas K. Explanatory dictionary of railway transport terms: terms in Lithuanian, English, German and Russian languages, Vilnius: „Lietuvos geležinkeliai“, 2006. Regulation No 536/2014 – Regulation (EU) No 536/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council on clinical trials of medicinal products for human use and repealing Directive 2001/20/EC. - http://eur-lex.europa.eu/ legal-content/LT/TXT/?qid=1434728567404&uri=CeLeX:32014R0536 (accessed 20 July 2015). VLS request list – Lithuanian Terminology Forum website, One-stop shop, VLS request list. – http://ec.europa.eu/translation/lithuanian/ltf/onestopshop_lt.htm (accessed 20 July 2015). LITERATŪRA Kuhmonen K. 2011: eSKOsta apua eU-säädöksiin. – Terminfo 3, 2011. informacija pateikiama pagal straipsnio santrauką anglų kalba. – http:/www.tsk.fi/tsk/fi/terminfo_32011-615.html (žiūrėta 2015-07-20). Lukoševičiūtė i. 2012: Pranešimo „Lietuvos ekspertų pastabos europos Komisijos vertėjo akimis“ seminare „Vertimas bei terminologija eS institucijose ir bendradarbiavimas su LR ekspertais“ (Vilnius, 2012 m. lapkričio 13 d.) skaidrės. – http://ec.europa.eu/translation/lithuanian/ltf/documents/term_lukoseviciute_ linesis_lt.pdf (žiūrėta 2015-07-20). Nutarimas Nr. 998 – Lietuvos Respublikos Vyriausybės 2010 m. liepos 7 d. nutarimas Nr. 998 „Dėl europos Sąjungos teisės aktų projektų terminų lietuvių kalba derinimo“. – Valstybėsžinios, 2010-07-15, Nr. 84-4417. VLS aprašas 2015: VLS aprašas_2015-04-22.pdf. – „eurTerm“ vikis: eS institucijų terminologijos interneto portalas, Lietuvių kalbos svetainė, Vieno langelio sistema. – https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/fpfis/wikis/ display/LTTeRM/VLS (svetainė prieinama tik eS institucijų darbuotojams). Zaikauskas e. 2014: Terminų vertimo būdai europos Sąjungos teisės aktų vertimuose į lietuvių kalbą. – Terminologija 21, 71–89. THE “ONESTOPSHOP” SYSTEM AS THE TOOL FOR THE HARMONIZATION OF LITHUANIAN TERMINOLOGY OF DRAFT EU LEGAL ACTS WITH LITHUANIAN NATIONAL BODIES The “one-stop-shop” system (VLS) was created more than 4 years ago and was designed for the harmonisation of terminology across the translation units of the Lithuanian language of the european Union institutions and with responsible national bodies of the Republic of Lithuania. in the eU institutions the system functions under the internal inter-institutional agreement and in Lithuania its functioning is regulated by Resolution of the Lithuanian Government No. 198. A terminology problem raised by a language unit of an eU institution is discussed at the inter-institutional level and then the query is sent to the State Commission of the Lithuanian Language (VLKK), which serves as a “one-stop-shop”. VLKK forwards the query to the ministries concerned, then collects their answers, discusses the issue at the meeting of the Terminology Sub-Commission and finally sends the term agreed at the national level to the eU institutions. if the institutions accept the proposal, the agreed term is used in the Lithuanian version of the draft eU legal act and entered in the iATe and eLiSe systems. All documentation related to VLS queries is archived on the eU intranet portal “eurTerm”. Such procedures of the harmonization of terminology via VLS require considerable efforts and resources but the terms harmonised in this way are of the highest reliability and constitute the terminology of top quality. The demand for the harmonization of terms via the “one-stop-shop” system is determined by three main factors: 1) lack of terminology for new concepts, 2) erroneous
148 egidijus Zaikauskas One-stop-shop – European Union law 1) a lack of common terms, aktųprojektųlietuviųkalbaterminųderinimo suLietuvosRespublikosinstitucijomispriemonė and 2) excess of terms naming the same concept (synonymy). All of the three are on a larger scale typical for any normative terminology process. The strong reunder quirement to base queries on particular documents, namely on draft eU legal acts translation, links the VLS system to text-based terminology. The background of a particular document gives some advantages: in most cases a domain is fixed and the attributes of the concept are easier to define. On the other hand, because of the peculiarities of the eU legislation drafting procedures such text-based terminology is less durable and more restricted in use. Closer analysis of terminology problems solved via the VLS system gives some clues as to the differences of attitudes toward terminology standardisation in the eU institutions vs. Lithuanian national bodies. it is obvious that eU translators rely more on the term equivalents in other languages, trying to follow their structure, mostly that of english terms, and even translating composite english terms word by word. in contrast, Lithuanian experts and terminologists of the State Commission of the Lithuanian Language concentrate more on concepts and try to design terms by naming concepts in a more precise way. Therefore, terms proposed by experts are often longer than those proposed by eU translators, though both are much longer than english equivalents. Despite some different approaches to terminology standardisation and some challenges and restrictions of its functioning, the VLS system constitutes a good example of successful cooperation between numerous institutions at both european and national levels. its model and experience can be used as a pattern for the creation and elaboration of other terminology management systems. Gauta 2015-07-03 egidijus Zaikauskas European Commission Bâtiment Jean Monnet C3/115, rue Alcide de Gasperi, L-2920 Luxembourg, Luxembourg e-mail [email protected] This article reflects the personal opinion of the author. It cannot be identified in any way su europos Komisijos ar bet kokio jos padalinio oficialia nuomone.