Sworn translation for town halls across Wallonie picarde
from Tournai to Mouscron and Ath
Municipalities, welfare centres and public operators across Wallonie picarde, up to the Eurometropolis projects. Tenders, by-laws, letters to residents, counters, and the bilingual projects of the Eurometropolis.
16
Municipalities covered
2
Countries in the Eurometropolis
24 h
Interpreter available
70+
Working languages
The paperwork the public authorities & services sector generates
Tournai is the capital of its district and the Belgian seat of the Eurometropolis Lille-Kortrijk-Tournai, the first European grouping of territorial cooperation, which officially works in French and Dutch. The Picardy Wallonia municipalities we cover add their own arrangements on top: Mouscron and Comines-Warneton are French-speaking with language facilities, and a single desk there hears three languages in one morning.
Cross-border cooperation
Agreements, agendas, minutes and European programme files moving back and forth between the Belgian and French partners of the Eurometropolis.
Public tenders
Contract notices, special specifications, bids received in a foreign language and award reasoning, delivered ahead of the publication date.
Resolutions and by-laws
Council resolutions, decisions of the executive board and by-laws the municipality applies to everyone.
Letters to residents
Letters, forms and notices aimed at the public, written to be understood on the first reading rather than the third.
Population and civil status
Foreign records presented at the desk, household compositions, residence certificates and extracts intended for an authority abroad.
Website and communication
Municipal website content, the residents' bulletin, prevention campaigns and the welcome booklet handed to newcomers.
The public authorities & services sector ten kilometres from France
Tournai administers one of the largest municipal territories in the country and works daily with its neighbours, from Mouscron to Ath and from Péruwelz to Lessines. The Eurometropolis Lille-Kortrijk-Tournai, the first European grouping of territorial cooperation, adds a dimension few Walloon authorities know: documents exist there in French and in Dutch, partners sit in three administrative systems, and one and the same project has to be described simultaneously for a French prefecture, a Belgian province and a Flemish province.
A contract notice and a letter to a resident have nothing in common. The first follows a regulatory formalism and a publication timetable that forgives no delay. The second has to be understood by someone reading it once, standing up, with the post in hand. Handing both to the same linguist would be a methodological mistake, and we do not make it.
At the counter the interpreter's position is a narrow one: they convey without steering or advising, in interviews where their neutrality determines whether what gets recorded is valid. We also know what a population department checks on a sworn translation before accepting it, which saves a second visit over a badly placed stamp or an incomplete statement of conformity.
- Contract notice and tender specifications
- Executive decisions, by-laws, council deliberations
- Standard letters and forms given to residents
- Extract of a record issued at the population counter
Situations that need someone in the room
A file stalls for as long as the officer and the resident cannot understand each other, and nobody at the desk has the half hour it would otherwise take.
Municipal counters
Population, civil status, residence and planning formalities, in the district capital as much as in Mouscron, Ath or Péruwelz.
Interviews at the social welfare centre
Assessment of a right to social assistance, an urgent request, an individualised plan and follow-up appointments.
Public meetings
Information sessions, advisory committees and presenting a project to the neighbourhood.
Cross-border sessions
Working groups, steering committees and project meetings with French and Flemish partners around the table.
One clause is easy to miss in joint specifications: the language of the bids. A contract published on both sides of the border may require French for one and Dutch for the other, sometimes with a sworn version of certain annexes. If the rule is only spotted when the bids are opened, the tender is set aside and there is no second chance. We check this point at the quotation stage.
Four steps, from the photo to the document
One project manager keeps your public authorities & services file from start to finish: nothing gets lost between one contact and the next.
- 01
Send the document as it is
A phone photo will do, crooked framing included. Booking an interpreter instead? Give us the day, the address and the two languages in the room.
- 02
Price and delivery date in 1 h
The quote states the amount, the deadline and the route: sworn where an authority demands it, standard everywhere else. Nothing to pay, nothing to sign.
- 03
A linguist from the field takes over
Your text goes to someone who works with public authorities & services terminology daily, and a second person reads it through before anything is sent.
- 04
Delivery or on-site assignment
The document arrives by email; the stamped copy follows by registered post if a counter insists on the original. For a spoken assignment, the interpreter is there on the hour.
A bilingual file due on a fixed date?
An invoice your finance officer can sign off, a sworn interpreter within 24 h, a costing inside the hour.
What changes once a public authorities & services file reaches us
An invoice that clears the check
Purchase order reference, a breakdown line by line and the wording your finance department requires. Your officer does not have to send it back to us first.
Belgian administrative Dutch
Our linguists use the terms that apply in Belgian institutions, not those of the Dutch government. An officer in Kortrijk spots the difference in one line.
The right specialist, not the first one free
A specialised text goes to a linguist who works in that field. A short deadline does not suspend the rule, it only means searching faster.
Confidentiality put in writing
Anyone who opens your file has signed a confidentiality undertaking beforehand. Files sit on European infrastructure and are wiped the moment you ask in writing.
No line added afterwards
The figure you approve at the start is the one on the invoice. Revision, layout and delivery are already inside it, with nothing surfacing at the end.
The drive is not charged to you
Reaching Tournai, Mouscron, Ath, Lessines, Péruwelz, Comines-Warneton or Beloeil costs you nothing extra in travel.
Frequently asked questions
Is a deed translated in France valid at a Belgian counter?
Not always. Many services require a translation by a translator listed on the Belgian national register, even when the French version carries a sworn translator's stamp. Send us the document before you send the resident home: we will tell you whether it stands.
How do you invoice a municipality or a welfare centre?
Against a purchase order, with the references your finance department asks for. When requests repeat, we replace one-off invoices with an agreement and a monthly statement, which spares your bookkeeping as much work as ours.
Do you translate into Dutch for the Flemish partners?
Yes, and in Eurometropolis files it is steady work. Tender and subsidy wording is standardised: we start from the terms already published in Dutch, because a partner in Kortrijk spots an improvised equivalent immediately.
Does a municipal by-law have to be translated in full?
Rarely. A resident reads the part that concerns them, not eighty articles. We usually translate the applicable provision and the explanatory note with it, keeping the complete text for services that need to compare it article by article.
Get your free quote within the hour
Send us your document or your date: firm price, precise deadline, no obligation. You then decide, with everything in front of you.