Languages make up the vehicule of information, in particular economic information. The creation of a single European market asks that all of the partners participating in economic activities be able to have access to information made available to them in languages other than theirs and, conversely, that they be able to communicate information directed to people who do not speak their language. This is the problem of transfering information between languages, otherwise know as translation.

More precisely, the negative economic impact of multilingualism is twofold for european economic agents:

As producers of good and services, they encounter additional barriers when they want to export, which results in a loss of time and money and, as a consequence, a lessening of competition.

As consumers of good and services, they experience increasing difficulty in keeping up with the most recent technical developments and buying the most modern equipment, which results in a technological slowdown and, once again, a loss of competition.

On the other hand, the fact of being the only important economic and industrial block in the world able to find a solution to such problems can also give Europe a considerable economic advantage. It has here a unique opportunity to acquire precious know-how in the area of the handling of languages, which it can apply on the economic level (directly by selling its experience and implementations; indirectly by more easily overcoming other linguistic barriers in its relations with external economic partners: USSR, China, Arabia, Latin America, etc.) and on the social level (applying its experience to the integration of the handicapped, etc.), in the group of activities as monolinguistic as multilinguistic.

The development of healthy and profitable language industries would assure Europe of a world superiority of the longest duration.