ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the institutional and physical setting and is mainly based on two sets of data. The very first council regulation stipulated the official languages and established the citizens' right to address the EU institutions in any of the official languages and to receive an answer in that same. In what follows, however, efficiency seems to dominate: the DGT sets itself the tasks of integrating the new languages into the work flow, matching the supply and demand of translation cost effectively, optimizing the use of resources by intra and interinstitutional cooperation and raising productivity. In addition to the textual and ideational contexts, it focuses on the mundane physical settings. The translators may be in-house, but they are in their own house, detached from other officials. Translators respond to this mixed institutional message by making their individual choices.
