Last June, Metamorfose won a major translation contract as part of a tender issued by the European Commission in Brussels. The contract involves the provision of translation services from English into Dutch for all departments, agencies and directorates-general of the European Commission.
This is a very special contract for a variety of reasons. First of all it was granted to Metamorfose on an exclusive basis. This means that all translations into Dutch subcontracted by the European Commission are done, in principle, by Metamorfose. As a consequence, the volume is immense. Metamorfose has made a range of investments in order to be able to process this volume efficiently, for example by hiring additional project managers and experienced translators.
Second, the translations concerned cover a very wide spectrum, ranging from taxation to competition and from waste processing to external relations with China and the United States. Many documents are highly technical or serve specific legislative purposes, but many others are intended for the general public, explaining EU asylum policies and strategies, for example, or focusing on legal instruments for EU citizens.
Reconciling the need for speed and efficiency with the need to guarantee superior quality is a major challenge in the translation business – as it is in many other industries. This new EC contract takes that challenge to a new level, as Metamorfose is contractually obliged to process the huge volumes without compromising the quality of individual translations in any way. The EC’s quality standards are extremely high.
Thanks to the investments referred to above and our extensive experience in working for all the major EU institutions, we believe we are capable of satisfying the Commission’s requirements. The contract has been running since 1 July and the initial results look positive.
