IP/09/1315 Brussels, 15 September 2009 Commission launches “European Master's in Translation ” network Today, the European Commission has published the list of university programmes that have been selected to join the “European Master's in Translation ” (EMT) network, following a call in March this year. The Commission's initiative has been warmly welcomed by the academic community. No fewer than 93 Master's level translation programmes from 24 Member States and three non-EU countries participated in the call, and 34 of these have been selected to be members of the EMT network for an initial period of four years. A further call will be launched in 2010. The network will help promote the exchange of best practice between participating universities and, ultimately, enhance teaching standards and foster the creation of a truly European market for skilled translators. “Europe needs high-quality university training for translators in all languages to secure a supply of skilled professionals. Multilingual communication, in a broader sense, needs them to blossom ”, said Leonard Orban, the European Commissioner for Multilingualism. He added “The EMT network will contribute to raising the standards of translator training in the EU and fostering cooperation and exchanges between universities offering translation courses ”. The call to join the EMT network was open to all EU higher education institutions offering translation programmes at Master's level. It was published in March this year with a 31 May deadline. All proposals were assessed by a group of academic experts. Initial membership is limited to four years during which time, the successful programmes will be entitled to use the label “member of the EMT Network ”. A second call for applications is scheduled for the end of 2010. EMT is intended to become a quality label for translator training by higher education institutions. The EMT project was launched in 2005 at the initiative of the Directorate-General for Translation of the European Commission, and has been developed in close co-operation with recognised translation experts from the academic world. In order to foster the exchange of teaching methods and experiences, all those who participated in the call, whether successful or not, will be invited to a first meeting of the EMT network in Brussels in December 2009. This event will constitute the inaugural meeting of the network. The list of the successful translation programmes is available on: http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/translation/programmes/emt/network/index_en.htm . For more information on the EMT project: http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/translation/programmes/emt/index_en.htm