Languages on this website
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) makes its most important information on medicines and on its work available in all official European Union (EU) languages on this website.
Corporate
German is available via eTranslation, the European Commission's machine translation service.
Translate to German | Important information about machine translation
This language policy is in line with EMA’s commitment to provide unbiased information to patients, healthcare professionals and all European Union (EU) citizens on the medicines it evaluates. This commitment lies at the heart of EMA’s public health mission.
EMA’s official working language is English. The Agency therefore carries out its business in English and makes all of its content available in English.
EMA also ensures that information of greatest relevance and impact for general audiences is officially translated into all official European Union (EU) languages. This includes:
- information related to the protection of public health, such as overviews of the medicines that EMA evaluates;
- subtitles or voice-overs to its videos and other audiovisual material that are available via this website and its YouTube channel.
EU citizens can also interact with EMA in any official EU language in queries and public consultations.
This website offers a machine translation feature that enables website visitors to view most pages in their preferred official EU language.
Did you know...?
EMA provides information in all EU languages on this website. This includes translated written content in PDF document format. You can select the desired language document from a menu. Most web pages on this website can be automatically translated using a browser-based machine translation feature.
EMA language policy
EMA’s language policy sets out the ways in which it works in English and other official EU languages.
EMA will publish its language policy in due course in all official EU languages, plus Icelandic and Norwegian.
The policy explains how EMA considers the impact of and relevance for stakeholders and public health protection in its decisions regarding official translation. It prioritises the information aimed at patients and healthcare professionals.
EMA sometimes makes information available in English before other EU languages, while translation is ongoing. It does this when necessary to avoid delays in publication of the information.
Much of the content on EMA’s website concerns the EU pharmaceutical legislative framework which is technical in nature. This information is aimed primarily at the pharmaceutical industry.
English is the language that this industry operates in globally. It is also the language in which standard terminology is available and used internationally, including by international authorities such as the World Health Organization (WHO) and the European Directorate for the Quality of Medicines (EDQM) of the Council of Europe.
The Agency uses English in this setting to reduce the risk of misunderstanding, ambiguity and potentially important errors that translation might introduce. As such, key information is officially translated into all EU languages, whereas technical content may be provided only in English.
While English remains the default language of the EMA website, website visitors can use a machine translation tool to view most webpages in any official EU language and gain a basic understanding of the content.
Machine translation feature
As of June 2026, website visitors can use a machine translation feature to better understand EMA’s role and work in their preferred official EU language.
The European Commission developed this feature in line with standards for EU institutions.
When you visit a page where this feature is available, follow these steps to translate it:
- Click the globe icon at the top of the page when the feature is available
- Select your preferred EU language from the list. A message will appear asking whether you would like to accept the translation. The same message includes a link where you can learn more about the feature
- Once the translation is complete, a confirmation message will indicate that the page has been translated
This feature runs in your browser and makes translations available only during the session. It temporarily stores translated content for up to 30 minutes without tracking users. This is required for the functioning of the system.
Due to technical limitations, the feature is not able to translate some types of content on a page, such as images, videos and files. In addition, some pages are only available in English, including:
On these pages, the translation option is hidden, and you will see a message explaining that the page is only available in English.
EMA will enable the option to translate to Norwegian and Icelandic in due course.
Send us your feedback
The quality and accuracy of machine translations may vary depending on the text, the language selected, and when the translation is generated.
You can provide feedback on the translation quality for a page by completing a two-questions survey. You can access it via the 'respond a couple of questions' link in the notification confirming that the page has been translated.
For more information, see:
Information on medicines that EMA evaluates
EMA makes information related to its scientific assessments of individual medicines available in all official EU languages:
- Overviews of authorised human medicines: these explain what the medicine is and why it was authorised
- Questions and answers on medicines refused authorisation: these explain why the medicine was not suitable for authorisation
- Questions and answers on withdrawn applications: these explain why a company withdrew its application for authorisation of a medicine
- Product information for authorised medicines: these include the package leaflet for patients and pet owners, and are also available
in Icelandic and Norwegian - Information on major reviews of medicines (known as referrals): these explain EMA’s recommendations about issues, such as concerns over safety
More information:
Interacting with EMA
EU citizens can send a question on this website in any official EU language. EMA will reply in the same language.
The Agency accepts contributions to public consultations in any official EU language.
Whenever possible, EMA makes public consultation documents available in official EU languages.
More information:
Page update history
An update log is available to show the date and summary of changes to this webpage. It does not include updates to linked documents or minor edits like typos or broken link fixes.
The tracking of updates begins in June 2026.
2 June 2026
Revised 'Policy 84: Multilingualism' published to reflect release of a new machine translation tool.
New section added with more information on the machine translation feature.
Translations of the 'About us' website section and the 'Frequently asked questions' page removed from the page.