Languages are a means for the communication of information - and particularly economic information. The creation of a single European Market requires that all the partners in economic activity have access to information available in languages other than their own, and that they be able to convey information to partners who cannot speak that language. This is the problem of transferring information between languages, in other words the task of translation.

To be more precise, the negative economic impact of a multilingual Europe is doubly grave for the participants in economic activity.

from the point of view of the producers of goods and services, this gives rise to additional barriers to export, which translate themselves into the loss of time and money, and hence into a reduced competitiveness

from the point of view of the consumers of goods and services, it manifests itself in the growing difficulty of keeping pace with technology and obtaining modern equipment, leading to a technological disadvantage and a loss of competitiveness.

On the other hand, the fact that Europe is the only economic and industrial community obliged to find a solution to these problems may be of considerable economic benefit: we have the unique opportunity to acquire valuable skills in the field of language processing. This may be of direct value to our economic progress, (both directly as a result of selling skills and products, and indirectly by making it easier to overcome the linguistic barriers separating us from outside trading partners such as the Soviet Union, China, the arab world , Latin America, and so on). It may also have effects on the social program (by , for example, the application of its findings to the integration of the handicapped into the workplace), that is in monolingual activities as well as multilingual ones.

The development of healthy and profitable language industries should, in the long term, assure Europe of a continuing competitive advantage over the rest of the world.