A single set of standards and the multiplicity of interpretations - EGOS

percentages. The use of translation memory improves consistency including common phrasing
and terminology but it does not ensure as such that the message of the original text is conveyed
accurately in the target language text. Moreover, the translation memory is updated in course of
translation and the segments stored in the database represent prior choices of the translator(s)
who uses the translation memory.
5.2 The EU Translation Policy
During the time when IFRS have been part of the EU legislation, the translation processes have
varied considerably. For several years IASB and EU had an agreement according to which IASB
submitted the official translations to EU and the local accounting expert groups functioned as
reviews of the translations. However, the IASB no longer submits the official translations to EU
and the EU translation policy does not require the use of accounting experts in the review of the
translations. Now that the standards are translated by Eu’s Directorate General of Translation
(DGT), the translations are either done by in-house translators of (see EC 2010) of EU or
outsourced to the external contractors who are recruited through a tendering procedure.
(http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/translation/workwithus/contractor/index_en.htm)
In Finland, the members of the previous Finnish RC have reviewed the translated IFRS on a
voluntary basis in co-operation with DGT but this is a temporary arrangement which does not
concern other countries. Under the translation policy of EU, the translator may decide whether
some accounting expert(s) need to be engaged with the translation. EU does not mandate any
review to be done by the accounting experts and it may vary between languages how much the
accounting experts are engaged with the translation. [to be continued]
6. Discussion and conclusions
This paper has explored how regulatory texts are translated in the realm of accounting, and the
problematics inherent in translation. As today listed companies domiciled in dozens of different
countries draw up their consolidated financial statements in accordance of with a common set of
standards, the problems of harmonization have shifted from harmonization of different sets of
accounting standards to the level of implementation and enforcement the common set of
standards (Durocher and Gendron 2011, Kvaal and Nobes 2011). Translation of accounting
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