Language is the vehicle for information, in particular for economic information. The creation of a single European market requires that all economically active partners should have access to information made available to them in languages other than their own, and, conversely, that they should be able to communicate information to those not speaking their language. This is the problem of the transfer of information between languages, i.e. of translation.

More precisely, the negative impact of multilingualism on European economic agents is of two kinds:

As producers of goods and services, they are confronted with additional obstacles in exporting, which lead to losses of time and money, and, consequently, reduced competitivity.

As consumers of goods and services, they experience greater difficulty in acquiring information about the latest technical developments and obtaining the most modern equipment; the result is technological backwardness, and, once again, diminished competitivity.

On the other hand, Europe may derive considerable economic advantage from its position as the world's only large economic and industrial bloc faced with the need to find solutions to such problems. It has a unique opportunity to gain valuable knowledge in the area of natural language processing, knowledge which may be exploited economically (directly, by selling its experience and products, and indirectly, by overcoming more easily other linguistic barriers in relations with external economic partners: the USSR, China, the Arab world, Latin America, etc.) and socially (by applying this knowledge to the integration of the handicapped, etc.), in both multilingual and monolingual activities.

The development of healthy and profitable language industries will in the longer term ensure Europe's leading position in the world.