Languages constitute the vehicle for information, in particular economic information. To create a Single European market all the trading partners must be able to gain access to the information placed at their disposal in languages other then their own, and conversely they must be able to communicate information to people who do not speak their language. The problem is that of transferring information between languages, in other words translation.

More precisely, the adverse economic impact of multilingualism is doubled for European businessmen:

as producers of goods and services, they run up against additional obstacles when they want to export, which are reflected in lost time and money and consequently, in loss of competitiveness;

as consumers of goods and services, they have increased difficulty in finding out about the latest technical developments and in procuring the most modern equipment, which means that they are technologically backward and therefore, once again, not so competitive.

On the other hand, the fact of being the only major economic and industrial bloc in the world with these problems can also give Europe a considerable economic advantage: it has a unique opportunity of acquiring precious know-how in the field of language processing which it can turn to its economic advantage - directly, by selling its experience and its products, and indirectly by overcoming more easily other linguistic barriers in its relations with external trading partners, viz. the USSR, China, the Arab world, Latin America, etc. - and socially, by using its assets for integrating handicapped persons and for other work, in both monolingual and multilingual activities.

The development of healthy and profitable language industry would give Europe world supremacy in the longer term.