Breaking barriers: Revolutionising Online Communication with the NEW Multilingual Navigation

In today’s digital world, communicating across languages has become more important than ever. Within the European Union, where 24 official languages coexist, making online information accessible to everyone is essential.

To support this objective, the European Commission introduced a multilingual navigation feature designed to improve the browsing experience across institutional websites. By integrating the Webtools machine translation widget, powered by the eTranslation service, into the European Commission Web Publishing Platform (EWPP), this solution combines translation technology with a more intuitive and user-friendly navigation experience.

The goal is straightforward: helping users access information in the language they feel most comfortable with.

How does the multilingual navigation feature work?

The multilingual navigation feature was designed to make switching between languages smoother and more natural for users. Several elements work together behind the scenes to make this possible.

A more integrated language experience

In the past, human translations and machine translations were often separated into different language menus, which could sometimes make navigation less intuitive.

With this new approach, every page is created in one source language, which becomes the main editing language. Human-translated and machine-translated content are now integrated into the same language switcher, creating a simpler and more consistent experience for users.

Machine-translated pages are identified through the URL and an eTranslation notification displayed once the page has loaded. This removes the need for separate translation menus and makes navigation feel more seamless.

Giving users control

Users can access content in other languages in two different ways:

• Human or remote translations are displayed when they are available, including translations provided through services such as ePoetry.
• When no official translation exists, users can activate machine translation directly from the language switcher.

This approach gives users more control over their browsing experience instead of relying entirely on browser language detection or automatic settings.

A smoother browsing experience

Once machine translation has been activated, the selected language remains active throughout the browsing session.

If users navigate to another page that already exists in their chosen language, they are automatically redirected to the human-translated version. If no official translation is available, machine translation takes over automatically without requiring additional confirmation.

During the process, the page initially appears in the original source language until the eTranslation service completes the translation.

Intelligent language redirection

The system also manages language preferences directly through the URL structure.

If a user accesses a page containing a specific language parameter, the platform keeps this preference throughout the navigation process. In these situations, browser language detection is not used, ensuring a more stable and predictable browsing experience.

This allows users to continue navigating in their preferred language even when some pages rely on machine translation.

Flexibility throughout the process

Another important aspect of the feature is the flexibility it offers users.

At any moment, users can:

• stop an ongoing translation,
• return to the original language,
• select another language,
• retry a translation if an error occurs.

This ensures that users remain fully in control throughout the entire browsing experience.

Supporting a more inclusive digital Europe

The multilingual navigation feature represents an important step forward in the way European institutions approach multilingual communication online.

By combining human translation, machine translation, and user-focused design, the European Commission is making digital information more accessible to citizens across Europe.

More broadly, this initiative shows how technology can help reduce language barriers and create a more connected and inclusive digital environment for everyone.