Ministry: No Demand for Translations of Laws Into EU Non-Official Languages
Translation of the country's legal acts into non-official languages is low on the list of priorities for the Justice Ministry because interest from the public is low.
The Ministry said the official government guidelines are that the entire corpus of laws should be translated into English as a resource for potential investors and other business people.
The Justice Ministry, which took over coordination of translations from the official gazette in 2006, has not ordered any legal acts to be translated into Russian this year, for instance. Russian translations of legislation and regulations have been published in the past, but interest has been low.
Spokesperson Priit Talv told Delfi that a selection of legal acts was published in the Russian edition of Riigi Teataja, the official gazette, until the Justice Ministry took over the function.
"But such orders kept on dropping off, and finally there were about 30 customers and the publishing was discontinued," said Talv.
Talv said nothing keeps legislative acts from being translated into Russian, if a ministry puts in an order.
He emphasized the focus is currently on English for purposes of educating possible investors and creating new jobs.
Kristopher Rikken