In the wide array of translation activities, one specialised type is the
muitilingual translation of the speeches by the Members of the European
Parliament during its part-sessions. This kind of translation task might best be
handled with a functionai approach, essentially because of its mixed nature:
parliamentary speeches in fact belong neither clearly to the oral nor to the
written code, but are instead a cross-over between the two. The feature of
'deoralising ' the original text, together with the strongly persuasive character of
political discourse in general and the highly conventionalised and international
terminology in use in the European Union may be considered as the major
factors determining the translator's approach to this particular text type.
