International

The motto of the European Union is ‘Unity in Diversity’. Although the European Commission is always harping on about ‘European’ culture, they are keenest on strengthening national or regional artistic expressions. They continue, however, to think in terms of the ‘market’. This is evident from the idea of facilitating access to national films and other audio-visual works by adding subtitles. For this to happen, subtitling would have to become much cheaper. And how is this to be achieved? By setting translators from the entire world one against the other, having them bid for work via so-called ‘crowdsourcing’. We will soon perhaps have more subtitled works, but this will be achieved by exploiting a group of professionals and putting the quality of subtitling in jeopardy. It’s typical of Brussels and something about which I intend to take action and not of course let ride.

If the European Commission is going to start meddling in culture, we’d better keep our wits about us. Apart from the question of whether it’s desirable for the public that a ‘European’ cultural policy be developed at all, the Commission’s approach is also quite wrong. On the one hand they want to show that a real ‘European’ culture exists, rather than recognising, as the motto of the European Union proclaims, that Europe consists of all sorts of separate cultures; on the other, they see culture as being of interest to ‘the market’. You can sometimes make money from it and that suits the Commission’s economic view.

The Commission recently published a call for the development of activities aimed at reducing the cost of subtitling. A total of a million euros has been earmarked for this and in principle all ideas are welcome, but one is highlighted: crowdsourcing. This relatively recent phenomenon comes down to making a tender known, for instance via the Internet, in such a way that anyone from anywhere in the world can subscribe. The lowest bid wins the contract. Translators in Europe who make a living from subtitling TV programmes and films would then have to compete with every other bidder. Yes indeed, this would certainly force costs down, but at the expense of the translators, whose rates are already under pressure. The Commission has nothing to say, but evidently adding subtitles is more important than ensuring their quality. This could become quite amusing in the future.

It’s totally scandalous that the Commission is trying behind the translators’ backs to increase exchange of audiovisual work. Let the Commission, as Dutch Commissioner Frans Timmermans says, meddle in more important things. Matters such as this can be better dealt with at national level. That’s better for the public’s influence in this area, better for the translators and better for the quality of subtitling. The European Parliament recently voted to support the plan, so the Commission can hide behind that. I will, however, be discussing with trade unions at the European level how we can make sure our protest gets through to the Commission.