Languages are the medium of information exchange, notably economic information. If a single market is to be created in Europe, all the participants in economic activity will require access to data placed at their disposal in other languages than their own; conversely they will have to transmit such data to those who do not speak their language. This is the problem of information transfer between languages: in other words, translation.

More precisely, the negative economic effect of multilingualism is doubled for European economic agents:

as producers of good and services, because they encounter additional export hurdles, encountered as losses of time and money, resulting in reduced competitiveness;

as consumers of goods and services, because they must overcome the difficulty of keeping abreast of the most recent technical developments and of obtaining the most modern equipment. This results in a technological lag, and again reduced competitiveness.

However, to be the only industrial-economic bloc in the world which has such problems to solve may give Europe a certain economic advantage: here is a unique chance to build a vital self-confidence in language matters, which could be an economic good in its own right, as for example: direct sales of experiential and practical data; indirectly in the ease of overcoming language barriers in relations with trade partners outside the Community, such as the USSR, China, the Arab world, or Latin America; socially in applications to special-needs services, and in a whole range of monolingual and multilingual activities.

The development of a healthy and profitable language industry can assure Europe a longer period of international dominance.