Languages constitute the vehicle of information, in particular of economic information. The creation of a single European market necessitates that all the participants in economic activities must be able to have access to information in languages other than their own, and conversely they must be able to communicate information intended for people who don't speak their own language. This is the problem of information transfer between languages, otherwise known as translation.

More precisely, the negative economic impact of multilingualism falls into two categories for European economic agencies:

in their capacities as producers of goods and services, they come up against further obstacles when they wish to export; these translate as loss of time and of money and, by way of consequence, as loss of competitiveness.

in their capacities as consumers of goods and services, they find that difficulties accrue in keeping track of the most modern technical developments and in buying the most modern equipment, which leads to out-of-date technology and thus, again, a loss of competitiveness,

On the other hand, the fact of being the only important economic and industrial block in the world to have had to find a solution to these problems could also give to Europe a considerable economic advantage: she has here a unique chance to acquire precious know-how in the area of language translation, which she could put to use in an economic plan (directly in selling her experience and practice; indirectly in overcoming more easily other linguistic barriers in her relations with outside economic partners: USSR, China, Arab world, Latin America, etc.) and in a social plan (applying her acquisitions to the integration of handicapped people, etc.), in a range of activities as much monolingual as multilingual.

The development by industries of sensible and profitable language skills will assure in the very long term a world supremacy for Europe.