Multilingual practice

ECHA publishes the majority of its web content and many of its public documents (such as guidance, practical guides, fact sheets, information leaflets as well as its decisions of general application) in all official EU languages. It does not translate press releases, news items, frequently updated web and social media content, and information from databases or complex pieces of regulatory scientific guidance.

Where appropriate, ECHA also organises consultations to get feedback from interested parties and to gather scientific information for the regulatory processes. For consultations, which are aimed at a specific group of stakeholders, ECHA conducts the consultation in a language/languages which should allow such stakeholders to provide the sought input and information. With regard to consultations aimed at a wide audience, ECHA publishes in all official EU languages i) a news alert informing the public of the start of the consultation and ii) a summary of each such consultation (outlining the background, aims and information sought).

Responses to both types of consultations can be provided in any official language of the EU.

Translations are accessible on this website by changing the default language in the dropdown menu present in the top-right corner of each page. The document library also provides an easy access to the translated documents, which can be sorted by type or category.

ECHA's documents and web pages are translated by the Translation Centre for the Bodies of the European Union, which is located in Luxembourg and provides translation services to all EU agencies.

ECHA's individual decisions and other requests related to the information provided in or with the registration dossiers are issued in the language of the dossier, in accordance with the Language Regulation (Regulation No. 1 of 1958, as subsequently amended). Exceptionally and where its resources allow, ECHA may on request provide courtesy translations of such communication.

The official languages of the EU are Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Irish, Italian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Maltese, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish and Swedish.