Languages constitute the vehicle for information, notably for economic information. The creation of a unique European market requires that all partners participating in economic activities have access to information at their disposal in languages other than their own and that, conversely, they be able to communicate information intended for those who do not speak their language. Central to these issues is the problem of transferring information between languages, or translation.

More precisely, the negative economic impact of multilinguism is doubled for European economic agents:

in that producers of goods and services encounter additional obstacles when they wish to export. which translates into lost time and money and, consequently, reduced competitiveness;

in that consumers of goods and services experience added difficulties in keeping informed of the most recent technical developments and in obtaining the most modern equipment, which results in a lag in technology and thus, once again, in reduced competitiveness.

On the other hand, the fact of being the only economic and industrial important bloc in the world that has had to find a solution to such problems may also give Europe a considerable economic advantage: Here Europe has the unique opportunity to acquire valuable expertise in the domain of language processing, which it will be able to exploit economically (both directly, by sale of its experience and accomplishments, and indirectly, by more easily surmounting other linguistic barriers in its relations with external economic partners: the USSR, China, the Arab world, Latin America, etc.) and socially (by applying its experience to the empowerment of the handicapped, etc.), in the realm of activities that are more monolingual than multilingual.

The development of a healthy and profitable language industry is necessary to assure Europe's long term world supremacy.