The European Commission announces today the 27 winners of its 18th EU translation contest for secondary schools ‘Juvenes Translatores.
3070 enthusiastic participants tried translating a text between any two of the EUs 24 official languages.
While English was a popular choice, students from 713 schools in 27 Member States used 144 language combinations, including Polish-Portuguese and Slovenian-Danish.
The European Commissions translators selected one winner for each EU country. Additionally, 341 students received special mentions for their impressive work. Commissioner Piotr Serafin congratulated the winners and thanked all participants and their teachers for their enthusiasm. He emphasized the importance of language education.
The award ceremony will take place in Brussels on April 10. During their visit, the 27 young translators will meet European Commission translators and observe their work. This also offers them a unique opportunity to discover each others languages and cultures. As last years Swedish winner, Ivar Lasse, put it: Juvenes Translatores made me believe in the European Project.
Background
Funded by the Erasmus+ programme, the Juvenes Translatores contest has been organized annually by the European Commissions Directorate-General for Translation since 2007 to promote translation and multilingualism. This contest has been a life-changing experience for many participants, giving them their first experience with the European institutions. Some have chosen to study translation at university, and some have joined the European Commissions translation department as trainees or have become full-time translators.
The goal of the Juvenes Translatores contest is to promote language learning in schools and to give young people a taste of what it is like to be a translator. The competition is open to 17-year-old secondary school students and takes place simultaneously in all selected schools across the EU.
Multilingualism, and therefore translation, has been an integral feature of the EU since the European Communities were first created. It was enshrined in the first Regulation determining the languages to be used in the then European Economic Community, adopted in 1958. Since then, the number of official EU languages has grown from 4 to 24, as more countries became EU members.
2024-2025 Juvenes Translatores winners:
COUNTRY | WINNER | PARTICIPANTS per COUNTRY | ||
Austria | Lea Grethe SK-DE | BG9 Wasagasse, Vienna | 20 | 75 |
Belgium | Alexandre Nadin EN-FR | Collège du Christ Roi, Ottignies | 22 | 99 |
* The number of participating schools from each EU country is equal to the number of seats it has in the European Parliament, with the schools being randomly selected by computer.
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