Languages constitute the means for information transfer, especially economic information. With the creation of a single European market, all partners contributing to economic activities need to have access to information available to them in languages other than their own. Conversely, they need to be able to target information at individuals not speaking their language. The problem of information transfer across languages is this: translation.

To be precise, multilingualism affects economic players adversely in two ways:

as producers of goods and services, they come up against additional obstacles when they wish to export---resulting in a loss of time and money, and so a blunting of competitive edge;

as consumers of goods and services, they experience difficulty in informing themselves concerning the most recent technical developments, and in obtaining the latest technology. As a result they remain technologically behind, and so again lose competitive edge.

On the other hand, Europe may gain considerable economic advantage from being the only important industrial and economic bloc in the world which is required to find a solutions to problems such as these. It has the unique opportunity to gain experience in the field of language processing, and this may yield dividends on the economic front: be it directly, by the sale of experience and products; or indirectly, because this experience can aid in the overcoming of linguistic barriers with non-European partners, for example in the USSR, the Arab World, Latin America, etc., or be of benefit to society in the framework of monolingual as well as multilingual activities---helping the handicapped to integrate, for example.

The development of wholesome and profitable language industries will in the long term guarantee Europe a world supremacy.