COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES 
Brussels, 08.11.1995 
COM(95) 486 final 
95/0263 (CNS) 
THE MULTILINGUAL INFORMATION SOCIETY 
COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION 
Proposal for a 
COUNCIL DECISION 
on the adoption of a multiannual programme to promote the linguistic diversity 
of the Community in the information society 
(presented by the Commission) 

THE MULTILINGUAL INFORMATION SOCIETY 
TABLE OF CONTENTS 
1. Political context 
2. The linguistic heritage of Europe 
2.1 The third language revolution 
2.2 Europe's linguistic heritage 
2.3 The different roles of language 
3. The emerging information society 
3.1 A new technological revolution 
3.2 A dual challenge for Europe 
3.3 Market forces will not suffice 
3.4 Solutions for industry 
4. Preserving language diversity in Europe 
4.1 The role of the Member States 
4.2 The role of the European Union 
4.3 The role of the educational institutions 
4.4 The role of the private sector 
4.5 The role of research and development 
5. A multilingual information society for Europe: the need for action 
5.1 Creating, validating and distributing European language resources 
5.2 Strengthening the language engineering industry 
5.3 Developing an advanced translation industry 
5.4 Creating an educated and advanced user community 
5.5 Developing a framework for coordination and promotion 
6. Coordination with related Community actions 
6.1 A European approach to language learning 
6.2 Promoting multilingual content 
6.3 Extending and exploiting the technology base 
7. Concluding remarks 
Annex 1 : Summary of MLIS actions 

THE MULTILINGUAL INFORMATION SOCIETY 
1. POLITICAL CONTEXT 
Europe's rich cultural heritage is closely linked to its many languages, uniting its 
peoples in national or regional communities and allowing them to participate fully in 
social, cultural, business and political life(1). 
The Commission's White Paper(2), the Bangemann report(3) and the Commission's Action 
Plan(4) evaluate the potential of the information society and provide political guidance 
on its development. The Trans-European Networks(5), the RTD activities in the 
Fourth Framework Programme^, notably Information Technologies, ACTS(7) and 
Telematics{8), and recent proposals under the INFO2000 programme(9) demonstrate the 
extent of efforts towards implementation. These efforts are linked to initiatives in the 
audiovisual sector(10) and programmes in relation to education and training. 
The European Council, meeting in Corfu in June 1994, stressed the importance of the 
linguistic aspects of the information society and, meeting in Cannes in June 1995, it 
emphasized the importance of the diversity of languages in the European Union. 
Today, we are experiencing profound changes in human communications with the 
arrival of global networked information and communication services for text, sound and 
images. While these provide exciting challenges, they could also have a marked effect 
on the languages we use. At worst, citizens unable to communicate comfortably in the 
widely spoken languages could be denied full participation in our increasingly 
information-based society. 
(i) 
(2) 
(3) 
(4) 
(5) 
(6) 
(7) 
(8) 
(9) 
(10) Council Resolution on language diversity and multilingualism in the European Union, 
12 June 1995 (Doc. 7755/95). 
Growth, Competitiveness, Employment: the Challenges and Ways Forward into the 
21st Century, White Paper by the Commission of the European Communities, 1994. 
Bangemann, M. (ed) Europe and the global Information Society: Recommendations to 
the European Council, 26 May 1994. 
Europe's way to the Information Society - An Action Plan, COM(94) 347 of 
19 July 1994. 
Under the Maastricht Treaty, there is special provision for Trans-European Networks 
for interchange of data between administrations, OJ No C 224 of 31 August 1992. 
Fourth Framework Programme of European Community activities in the field of 
research and technological development and demonstration (1994-1998), OJ No L 126, 
18.5.1994. 
Advanced Communications Technologies and Services, COM(94) 243. 
Telematics Applications Programme. Council Decision, OJ No L 334, 22.12.1994, p. 1. 
INFO2000 Programme Proposal, Stimulating Multimedia Information Content for 
Business, Administrations and Citizens in the European Information Society. 
Communication from Mr Bangemann to the Commission, March 1995. 
Strategy to strengthen the European programme industry in the context of the 
audiovisual policy of the EU, Green Paper by the Commission of the 
European Communities, 1994. 
Such dangers could be avoided if we were able to ensure full multilingual support in 
the use of electronic information, echoing the call for diversity of content, including 
cultural and linguistic content, expressed by the G-7 meeting on the information 
society01}. While this diversity will continue to depend in large part on national 
initiatives at the educational and cultural levels, it can also benefit considerably from 
efforts to provide better facilities for access to information in our various languages. 
Furthermore, the trans-European telecommunications networks(l2) now being established 
for various application sectors will benefit from efforts to promote multilingual 
information services. 
In more general terms, multilingual support will contribute to the functioning of the 
internal market by facilitating interlingual communications and will strengthen economic 
and social cohesion by stimulating collaboration between Europe's different language 
regions. It will enable the citizens of Europe to participate more fully in our 
increasingly information-based society while providing new opportunities for SMEs to 
enter the multilingual information market. Indeed, increased awareness of the challenges 
and opportunities of the multilingual aspects of the information society will encourage 
industry at large to address new markets by reducing linguistic constraints. 
What is needed first and foremost are practical solutions to the problems industries 
experience when launching products on foreign-language markets. It is not unusual for 
delays of several months to occur as a result of the need for translation and localization 
in technical product support, user manuals and advertising. In the case of computer 
products and services, language adaptation of software presents an even heavier burden 
on the vendor, frequently discouraging the multilingual approach. Suitable tools and 
procedures to reduce these constraints can thus be expected to have a significant impact 
on cross-border trade in a variety of industrial sectors. 
The Commission itself, together with the other European institutions, will be able to 
contribute considerable expertise and experience in the development of multilingual 
tools and services as a result of its own needs for translation, interpreting and 
multilingual publications. Indeed, the European institutions stand to benefit directly from 
many of the results obtained. Progress at the European level will, wherever possible, be 
shared with Member States in the interests of promoting the development of 
multilingual tools at the national level. 
This communication analyses the issues and describes how progress can be made in 
Europe with the development of a multilingual information society by coordinating 
efforts between the Member States and the public and private sectors, so as to provide 
adequate language support for its citizens, including cost-effective translation and 
multilingual customization. 
The very technologies, whose pervasive application can pose a threat to linguistic and 
cultural diversity in the information society, can also help overcome the language 
barriers in Europe*13) by reducing the cost of multiversioning, translation and 
customization of information products and services. 
However, market forces alone will not be sufficient to bring about the multilingual 
information society in Europe. Positive action is required at the level of the 
Member States and of the Union to catalyse the necessary developments. 
(,,) G-7 Ministerial Conference on the Information Society, Brussels, 25 and 
26 February 1995, Chair's Conclusions. 
Proposal for a European Parliament and Council Decision on a series of guidelines for 
trans-European telecommunications networks, COM/95/224, 16 June 1995. 
Speech by Mr Santer for the European Parliament, Strasbourg, 17 January 1995. (12) 
(13) 
Commercial opportunities will follow: in the media industries (with improvements in 
dubbing and subtitling), in document preparation (by means of spelling and grammar 
checkers) and in many other activities involving translation bearing in mind that literary 
translation requires a creative and accurate adaptation of the original work. Multilingual 
resources will also pave the way for a variety of speech applications from systems 
converting text into speech to voice-operated machinery for factories. 
Europe will thus be able to move towards a multilingual information society, creating 
new language industries and opening up new business and cultural opportunities for its 
citizens. This will, in turn, create new jobs and new markets, providing a potential for 
multilingual products and services throughout Europe and across the globe. 
2. THE LINGUISTIC HERITAGE OF EUROPE 
2.1 The third language revolution 
Three successive revolutions have transformed the nature of human communication, 
each leading to significant functional changes in language use. 
The first came with the invention of writing systems, providing access to knowledge 
through reading and writing. For the common man, however, face-to-face oral 
communication continued to be the norm. 
The second revolution, the invention of mechanized printing, dramatically expanded the 
horizons of the ordinary citizen. Mass literacy was to provide a basis not only for 
consolidating access to knowledge and culture but the means for democratic 
participation in national government for the very first time. 
We are now experiencing the third and most radical revolution of all, in which 
computer-based technologies offer individuals instant worldwide access to information. 
In this emerging information society, the role of language is once again changing, more 
profoundly than ever before, as a result of screen-based communication combining text, 
images and sound. 
The new information technologies are radically changing the nature of 
communication, with considerable repercussions on the role of languages. 
2.2 Europe's linguistic heritage 
Over 45 national and regional languages and major regional variants are spoken by the 
380 million people of the European Union. Most are of Romance, Germanic or Celtic 
origin, others include Greek, Finnish or Basque(14). 
Europe's language diversity is, however, moderate in comparison with other areas of 
the world. Globally, estimates of the number of different, mutually-unintelligible spoken 
languages vary from 5 000 to 25 000 depending on what counts as a language and what 
as a dialect. 
But many of the minority languages are experiencing difficulties, often under the 
influence of changing patterns of communication. Penetration of the new technologies 
could substantially accelerate this process, threatening to diminish the linguistic and 
cultural*l5) diversity of European society. 
(14) Hearn P.M. and Button, D.F. (Eds.) (1994) Language Industries Atlas, Amsterdam: 
IOS Press for CEC, Brussels and Luxembourg. 
(15) Eurobarometer No 41, July 1994, provides data on language proficiency in Europe. 
European integration must be based on transparency for the citizen. Key legislation and 
communications must therefore continue to be made available in the Union's languages 
to ensure full understanding and wide application. 
Europe enjoys a rich diversity of languages. The continuing process of integration 
will be significantly accelerated if open access is provided to legislative texts and 
supporting documents for all its citizens in the various languages used 
2.3 The different roles of language 
Languages have profound yet complex effects on many aspects of society. 
They serve to foster social cohesion in our countries or regions, encouraging common 
values. A common language facilitates open communication at all levels of society. 
Conversely, differences in language hamper communication, causing difficulties for 
minority groups. 
Language is also an instrument for safeguarding democracy. Society flourishes on open 
debate and discussion: freedom of speech is a cornerstone of our democratic systems; 
the free press acts as a guardian of democratic expression; and language is the vehicle 
used by each and every citizen in his contribution to democracy. The transparency of 
the functioning of the European Institutions can therefore only be ensured by the 
availability of multilingual support. 
Our cultural life is intimately linked to language. Every country has its poet or 
playwright whose work symbolizes the cultural identity of its people, while much of our 
cultural heritage is enshrined in our various languages. 
Lastly, there are economic aspects. Languages determine markets, often in relation to 
translation or customization costs which can become a significant factor in international 
trade whatever the product or service. In the software industries, language customization 
of software products contributes significantly to their cost, although customization will 
also increase the market for such products. Europe's film and television industries as 
well as its cultural industries and institutions, unlike their American counterparts, have 
to bear the cost of dubbing and subtitling if they wish to reach large audiences. 
The political, cultural and economic effects of languages will each require proper 
attention in building Europe's information society. 
3. THE EMERGING INFORMATION SOCIETY 
3.1 A new technological revolution 
The convergence of information and telecommunications technologies is transforming 
the nature of communication at every level of society. 
Not only are these technologies able to provide new ways of accessing, distributing and 
handling information in its various forms (text, sound, images, video), their use is 
already transforming the way in which we live and work, taking us from a society based 
on physical goods to one which is increasingly centred on knowledge and information. 
The information society is gathering momentum in factories, offices, schools and homes 
in all our Member States. New approaches to information access are leading to a more 
open society with an increasing flow of knowledge, information, documentation and 
entertainment within and across frontiers. 
Economie activities previously centred on local markets now have international 
potential. Culture-specific markets such as publishing, software production and home 
computer services are increasingly adopting a multinational approach. 
Global information links, including satellite and cable television, are rapidly becoming 
commonplace. Worldwide computer networks such as the Internet attract countless new 
European users every month. 
The information revolution is radically changing the nature and use of 
communications throughout society, providing new opportunities for business, culture 
and education. 
3.2 A dual challenge for Europe 
As information affects every level of society, provision of equal opportunities for access 
is a key issue. Indeed, left unchecked, the information revolution could lead to a two-
tier society, differentiating between those able to make full use of the technologies and 
those prevented from doing so, often because of the language factor. 
The dual challenge for Europe in the emerging information society is therefore one of 
maintaining our rich linguistic and cultural diversity while ensuring equal opportunities 
for our businesses and citizens to participate in the new information age and to share 
its benefits. 
Industry must adapt to remain competitive in European and world markets. Companies 
will have to pay careful attention to linguistic and cultural factors in tackling their 
product development and marketing strategies. SMEs experiencing difficulty in 
acquiring such knowledge and in adapting their product lines and marketing, will only 
benefit once they have understood the nature of the problem. 
To meet these challenges, Europe's information society must remain multilingual. 
Citizens throughout the Union must be able to communicate to the full, not only with 
other Europeans but with partners throughout the world. They must be given the means 
to live and work together efficiently, in a spirit of tolerance, democracy and social 
unity. 
A multilingual approach to communications will provide equal opportunities for 
individuals and businesses, whatever their language, to participate in the new 
information age 
3.3 Market forces will not suffice 
The rapid rise in use of information and communication technologies will naturally 
favour languages which can be successfully processed. Languages supported by key 
software products offering powerful facilities for manipulating text also provide almost 
unlimited access to information services in those languages. 
In this respect, market forces tend to concentrate on a limited number of languages in 
order to bring the services as rapidly as possible to a substantial number of users. The 
effect of these trends is to exclude a large number of Europeans who do not master the 
languages concerned as well as companies, SMEs in particular, that do not acquire the 
language expertise, denying them proper access to the benefits of the new information 
age. The long-term viability of languages not specifically supported is therefore put at 
risk. 
There is a clear need for actions to ensure a balance between the major languages 
and languages serving smaller national or regional communities in Europe. 
3.4 Solutions for industry 
In the emerging information society, products are increasingly accompanied by complex 
support material, in the form of user manuals or, in the case of software, as screen 
messages displayed in the language of the user. Failure to provide such multilingual 
support presents a number of formal and practical restrictions on the markets which can 
be successfully addressed. In the absence of multilingual support, products frequently 
result in considerable frustration for the user. 
Industries large and small are all too well aware of the time and cost taken to bring 
products to foreign-language markets. All too frequently, manufacturers decide to 
restrict their marketing approaches to those areas where translation requirements can be 
avoided or kept at a minimum. 
As a consequence, the European market does not function well for a wide range of 
products, particularly those with an important information component, or niche markets 
generally served by SME's. 
In the first place industry needs clarity about the language requirements of the market, 
so that they can prepare and are subjected to the same linguistic regimes as their 
competitors. 
Secondly, they need to accelerate adapting their linguistic competence and marketing 
strategies, including the use of advanced language tools, translation services and human 
linguistic capabilities. 
Thirdly, the tools, services and best practices must be developed according to their 
specific needs. There is a clear role for the language engineering industry to develop 
and market the products that improve cost-effectiveness. 
In view of the European and multilingual nature of the problem, Community action is 
needed addressing the market, the supplier industries and the language industries in a 
coherent way. 
Coordinated action at Union level will help overcome some of the problems which 
individual companies now find impossible to solve alone. 
4. PRESERVING LANGUAGE DIVERSITY IN EUROPE 
4.1 The role of the Member States 
Preservation of the various languages in Europe is primarily a task for the countries 
concerned, some of whom have explicit language policies. Inspired by the wishes of its 
citizens, each Member State and region places special value on its languages, insisting 
on their continued recognition in the European context. The development and 
availability of tools specific to the languages used in a Member State or region, should 
be the prime responsibility of that Member State or region. 
All the Member States and regions thus have a common interest in preserving language 
diversity in the European Union as it enters the information age. 
Each Member State and region has a decisive role to play in preserving its language 
or languages, in accordance with subsidiarity. 
4.2 The role of thfe European Union 
The European Institutions, especially the Commission, can play a catalytic role and add 
value to national efforts by: 
safeguarding the status of official languages, in accordance with rules regulating the 
use of languages in the European Institutions(16), 
informing public organizations and industry of the importance of language issues 
in the information age, with a view to identifying common problems and possible 
solutions, 
stimulating the language industries and user industries to pursue truely European 
or global marketing strategies, integrating multilingualism into their strategies to 
give them a competitive advantage, 
making the benefits of its R&D initiatives available to users and to industries 
developing language engineering services and products, 
promoting the development of tools, standards and infrastructures which are largely 
language-independent, though essential for the handling of languages, 
raising awareness and promoting a multilingual approach to the information society 
in Europe, in relation to content, interfaces, translation, interpretation and language 
learning. 
The European Institutions can offer support in promoting and ensuring language 
diversity in the information age. 
4.3 The role of the educational institutions 
Educational institutions play a vital role in preserving language diversity in Europe. 
Mastery of the mother tongue is at the root of all our cultures and educational systems. 
Learning to be proficient in foreign languages is becoming a necessity for all Europeans 
in the emerging global information society. 
In line with the conclusions of the G-7 meeting on the information society, there is 
a need for an innovative approach to cross-cultural education and training, especially 
for students and for employees of all enterprises, including SMEs. 
4.4 The role of the private sector 
The private sector has a key role to play in bringing about the information society in 
Europe as has been stressed in the Commission's white paper on Growth, 
Competitiveness, and Employment, the Bangemann report and the G-7 meeting on the 
information society. 
Indeed, multilingual content production and multilingual interfacing will be handled by 
private companies. In the sphere of language learning, private organizations will 
increasingly complement public educational institutions. Translation, interpretation and 
language support for software and the media are important areas for the private sector 
\n working towards the multilingual information society. 
( I'M Based on Articles 217 and 248 of the Treaty of Rome and first enacted in 
Council Regulation 1, OJ No L 17, 6.10.1958, and subsequently modified with the 
accession of new Member States. 
Language diversity, for a long time considered a cost factor only, is now seen as an 
opportunity for industry, creating new types of industrial activity, and allowing a greater 
diversity of products that comply with the individual wishes of customers. 
Private companies will play a key role in developing the multilingual information 
society. 
4.5 The role of research and development 
New technologies can contribute to preserving multilingualism by providing ever 
increasing capacity and processing power for telecommunications and computer 
operations. 
European R&D in language technology has created a strong scientific base. But 
technology transfer has had only limited success since marketable products have tended 
to be monolingual rather than multilingual and have, as a rule, been launched by the 
United States. Only now are European firms starting to bring products to the market. 
European research efforts have provided a strong base in preparation for technology 
transfer to the market place. 
5. A MULTILINGUAL INFORMATION SOCIETY FOR EUROPE: THE NEED 
FOR COMPLEMENTARY ACTION 
Promoting multilingualism in Europe implies a broad range of initiatives in different 
domains, as elements of a coherent strategy. 
A number of initiatives are already underway, helping to pave Europe's way to the 
multilingual information society. There are, however, a number of gaps which must be 
filled within a complementary framework if the strategy is to succeed 
The multilingual information society initiative therefore addresses three new areas for 
action which will reinforce the overall strategy. These cover promotion of a European 
language resource infrastructure (Action Line 1), reinforcement of the role to be played 
by the language industries (Action Line 2), and the development of multilingual tools 
for public services (Action Line 3). To provide focus for defining issues related to 
language aspects of the information society, the creation of a platform for coordination 
is envisaged bringing together public and private organisations (accompanying 
measures). 
The number and variety of actors is so great that the Commission can only act 
effectively through awareness and promotional activities, language infrastructure 
developments, pilot and demonstration projects with a promotional value and a limited 
number of focused actions for the language industries. Implementation will generally 
be by means of calls for proposals for shared-cost projects and by calls for tender for 
specific developments under Action Line 3. 
The new activities will complement existing Community initiatives in the areas of 
language learning, multilingual content and language technology. 
Actions should create the right conditions for a multilingual information society by 
building on current European initiatives and stimulating collaboration. 
10 
5.1 Creating, validating and distributing European language resources 
Transforming language technologies into marketable products and services depends not 
only on a strong technology base but on the availability of resources such as electronic 
dictionaries, terminology banks, speech databases and grammars. Considerable efforts 
will be required here, calling for investments well beyond the possibilities of private 
sector actors, particularly as most of the firms involved are SMEs. 
Substantial sums have already been invested by Member States, the Commission and 
private companies in producing language resources such as on-line dictionaries, thesauri 
and terminology banks. The potential of these resources is presently hampered by the 
fact that they are mostly monolingual. Furthermore, they have been developed without 
due regard to compatibility and are therefore difficult to trace and to reuse. An 
inventory of potentially reusable language resources is needed as a basis for making 
them multilingual, compatible and widely available and accessible. 
Subsidiarity can be made to work effectively in this area, the actual development of full 
scale resources for any language being the responsibility of the Member State(s) where 
the language is spoken, while the Community is concerned with general issues such as 
standards and their application, equal access for all businesses and citizens, Europe-wide 
networking of databanks, comparable quality levels for all languages. For multilingual 
resources, which are so vital to creating a truly multilingual information society, 
responsibility for taking initiatives will be shared between the Community and the 
Member States concerned, distinguishing the generic from the specific. 
An association of suppliers and users will serve to promote the emergence of a resource 
infrastructure, whose establishment and operation will be left to public and private 
operators in the various sectors. In the United States and Japan, government has 
stimulated the creation, distribution and standardization of linguistic resources. 
National lexical organizations will be encouraged to coordinate their resources and 
results in order to ensure that Europe's language industry can benefit to the full. Special 
attention should also be paid to contributions from the publishing industry. 
In the field of speech technology, there is a need for research institutes to cooperate 
closely among themselves and with industry in compiling standardized databases for the 
development and testing of speech processing systems, leading to advanced speech 
technology applications. As a large number of spoken European languages should be 
covered, the Commission will investigate with the Member States the feasibility of 
supporting developments for speech databases, particularly for languages with limited 
economic potential. 
The importance of terminology in information handling across Europe is so great as to 
justify the establishment of a common infrastructure for terminology. Millions of 
specific terms exist today in some 200 different sectors. Large distributed or networked 
data banks for easy access to multilingual terminology based on appropriate standards 
are therefore required. 
Industries and institutions working on multilingual terminology in Europe could form 
the basis of a cooperative terminology venture. With suitable stimulation and proper 
financial and organizational backing, this could become a European Coordination and 
Information Centre for Terminology, cooperating with the national and regional 
terminology centres and with the various industrial, administrative, legal, scientific and 
medical sectors. 
11 
Careful consideration should be given to the most effective ways and means of ensuring 
unified access to these resources and to their use. To ensure a widely shared 
base, networked access tools could be made available for immediate downloading 
(i.e. as freeware). 
Wider availability of accessible multilingual resources will emerge from closer 
coordination between national and regional organizations dealing in lexicography and 
terminology. Under Action Line 1, thé Commission will help to create the structures 
and procedures for coordination and will stimulate cooperation. 
5.2 Strengthening the language engineering industry 
An important aspect of the private sector's role in bringing about the multilingual 
information society is involvement in the so-called language engineering industries 
whose primary business is the development of marketable products for the computer-
based handling of languages. 
These industries, which stand to play a key role in developing European access to the 
information society, have not been able to develop to the full as a result of the 
prohibitive cost of developing the large-scale language resources which are so necessary 
for product performance. 
Examples are authoring and editing tools, based on spelling and grammar checkers, 
translation support tools such as electronic dictionaries and terminology banks, 
computerized translation systems adapted to different subject areas and text types, and 
developments for speech recognition and speech synthesis. 
A strong language engineering industry is clearly needed to build the backbone of 
Europe's multilingual information society. It could later play an important role in 
exporting European language products to other parts of the world. Its emergence will 
depend on pooling European expertise in order to increase the potential for developing 
applications and. on an extension and better exploitation of the European science and 
technology base in this domain. 
Essentially, it is a task for the private sector companies involved. However, 
Member States and the European Institutions should play a stimulating, catalytic role 
in their support, identifying potential markets and areas for action and encouraging 
industry to take on challenges which would be beyond their individual scope. 
There are good reasons to do so. In Europe, industry is confronted with markets which 
are more fragmented than, for example, those in the United States. Most of the actors 
are fairly small companies, lacking the power to tackle linguistic and cultural barriers 
to foreign markets. This is compounded by the fact that for new products and services 
the European markets are less dynamic than the United States and East-Asia. This 
double challenge gives European companies a fundamental disadvantage that should be 
compensated for by infrastructural and stimulation measures. 
In language engineering, many of the methodologies, standards, functional specifications 
and basic technologies are largely language independent. In these cases, initiatives at 
the Community level generate economies of scale. In the area of interlingual tools such 
as those used in translation, the Community quite naturally has a role to play in liaison 
with the Member States concerned. 
Member States will maintain responsibility for those aspects of tools, resources and 
applications which specifically concern their particular language or languages. 
12 
The stimulating role of the Union will involve enhancing the language engineering 
industries under Action Line 2 so that they can benefit from a more coherent 
approach to multilingualism.. 
5.3 Developing an advanced translation industry 
The translation sector represents one of the most prominent domains of usage of 
language engineering products, and is itself a major supplier of language products, 
namely translations. It is estimated that in the European Union alone, over 100 million 
pages of text are translated a year, corresponding to a work force of 100 000 and a 
turnover of ECU 10 billion(17). 
But translation is not merely text translation, today it involves such diverse activities 
as interpreting, localization of software, dubbing and subtitling, versioning of audio­
visual and multimedia products. 
Software product sales in Europe, already at around ECU 25 billion per year, are 
increasing rapidly. A key sector here is the customization of software for local markets, 
involving the preparation of documentation, product support, manuals, packaging and 
warehousing as well as distribution and logistics. Most involve language-based activities 
even in cases where translation is not directly needed. 
Emphasis in the translation industry is progressively on computerized translation support 
tools such as electronic dictionaries, translation banks and messaging systems which can 
be accessed from the translator's workstation. Computer literacy is thus becoming an 
essential skill for the practising translator, and will contribute to bringing about a more 
industrialized approach based on extensive use of appropriate networking services. 
Easy access to multilingual aids, including large-scale lexical resources and terminology 
banks will become ever more important. Networking for individual translators and 
translation companies will improve efficiency and flexibility, raising Europe's 
competitivity in.the world market. In close consultation with the translation industry, 
actions including training and awareness building will be started to mobilize and 
strengthen European translation potential. 
Ultimately, all citizens and business of the Union should have access to user-friendly 
translation tools. These do not yet cover all the lesser-used languages, as returns on 
investment are too low for the smaller companies involved. This is clearly an area for 
cooperation. 
The stimulation of a more industrial approach to translation based on extensive 
networking and access to translation tools and resources will be promoted under 
Action Line 2 to improve Europe's efficiency and competitivity in the world 
translation market. 
5.4 Creating an educated and advanced user community 
Incentives for bringing technology to the market place will only be successful if a 
strong and growing demand for multilingual information products and services exists. 
This demand will come from citizens (entertainment, information), businesses 
(information, interpretation, translation) and the public sector (information, culture, 
translation, interpretation, documentation). All must be made aware of the emerging 
information society and of current and future possibilities for a multilingual approach 
to information in Europe. 
(17.) Source: Praetorius Ltd., Nottingham, England. 
13 
The European Institutions can also play a specific role in this respect. The Commission, 
under successive Multilingual Action Plans(18), has for some time been experimenting 
with the use of multilingual tools, such as computerized translation and terminology 
banks. Recently, there have been efforts to extend these activities to the other 
European Institutions and to some Member State administrations. These should be 
intensified. 
Efforts must be made to inform businesses, administrations and individual citizens of 
the availability of language tools and services. Under Action Line 3, the European 
Institutions can act as a showcase for the European industries concerned, stimulating 
high-level demand and contributing directly to the emergence of Europe's 
multilingual information society. 
5.5 Developing a framework for coordination and promotion 
If the private sector is to participate actively in bringing about the multilingual 
information society, a clear policy will of course be required, fostering joint action 
between the EU Institutions, the Member States and private enterprise. 
In the context of international initiatives relating to the global information society, the 
Commission will emphasize the need to address linguistic and cultural aspects. 
Cooperation will be pursued in particular with the non-Community countries in 
Central and Eastern Europe, the European Economic Area and the Mediterranean Basin, 
and countries where European languages are widely spoken. 
To provide focus for defining issues relating to the language aspects of the 
European information society, the creation ofa platform for coordination is envisaged 
bringing together public and private organizations that have responsibilities or missions 
with respect to multilingualism and society. Its tasks include: 
improving the understanding of language issues for the information society; 
analysing the relevant economic, social and cultural aspects; 
identifying the main obstacles in creating a multilingual information society; 
stimulating coordination between national bodies and the European Institutions; 
assessing progress towards the multilingual information society; 
cooperation and exchanging language resources with countries outside the 
European Union; 
A platform for coordinating public and private multilingual initiatives will be 
established as an accompanying measure to provide a focus for policy making. 
(18) 6th Multilingual Action Plan 1994-1995. 
14 
6. COORDINATION WITH RELATED COMMUNITY ACTIONS 
The actions described above have been carefully targeted to complement work which 
is already in progress under a number of existing Community initiatives. Indeed, 
promoting multilingualism in Europe implies coordination between a broad range of 
initiatives in different domains which should, however, be regarded as elements of a 
coherent strategy. 
Complementary Community actions strengthening language knowledge and the 
technology base will each play a vital part in creating Europe's multilingual 
information society. 
6.1 A European approach to language learning 
The growing need for multilingual support in communicating information and 
knowledge is recognized by businesses, administrations and individual citizens. More 
emphasis is therefore now being given to language learning initiatives. 
While the basis is excellence in the mother tongue, proficiency in foreign languages is 
becoming almost as important. Only by extending their language capabilities will our 
citizens be able to benefit from the ever richer information services provided over the 
global networks. This could be achieved, in part, by the development of distance 
language learning products for the networked environment. 
Following LINGUA(19), the SOCRATES and the LEONARDO programmes give full 
attention to language learning, extending coverage to vocational training. In the new 
Telematics Applications Programme, both the Education and Training sector and the 
Language Engineering sector include development of language learning tools. 
The Research Council recently agreed to establish a number of task forces charged with 
the elaboration of certain multidisciplinary research topics. The task force addressing 
educational multimedia software will be looking into the language learning issues. 
The focus on language learning in all phases of the educational process as well as 
in the professional environment should be enhanced Community programmes like 
LEONARDO and SOCRATES as well as the Telematics Application Programme will 
contribute to this. 
6.2 Promoting multilingual content 
As it moves into the information age, Europe can certainly capitalize on its extensive 
content holdings in the publishing, audiovisual and language areas. Modern production, 
packaging and distribution methods will open international markets for a variety of 
services, whether for leisure, culture, or business, often requiring a multilingual 
approach to content. 
These will include techniques for lowering the cost of producing content-related 
products for Europe's many language markets. New technologies will enable a more 
integrated approach, reducing translation and adaptation costs while improving 
multilingual quality. 
(19) LINGUA: Promotion of the teaching and learning of the languages of the EC, 
Council Decision, OJ No L 239, 16.8.1989. 
15 
The European content industry will be one of the main industrial participants in 
bringing about the information society, in view of the need to publish in a variety of 
languages for the multilingual market. This need will also be addressed under the 
proposed INFO2000 programme and the Media II programme. 
Similarly, in RTD programmes, particularly in the information engineering and language 
engineering sectors of the Telematics Applications Programme, due attention will be 
given to technologies for reducing the additional costs and cutting back the turn-around 
time of multilingual content production, including dubbing, subtitling and multilingual 
software support. An important area here will be tools for the production of CD-ROMs 
and CDIs in a wide variety of languages. 
Development of tools and methods designed to reduce production costs of multilingual 
content while improving its quality will be stimulated in the framework of the RTD 
programmes. The INFO2000 and the MEDIA II programmes will stimulate the 
production of multilingual content 
6.3 Extending and exploiting the technology base 
Despite significant progress in the past 10 years, language technology remains 
immature, requiring further research and development. A constraint is lack of large-
scale, widely accessible computerized resources for the various technologies. 
- Natural language processing covers language recognition, dialogue management, 
syntactic, morphological and semantic analysis, computerized translation, document 
indexing and retrieval, and techniques for evaluation. These technologies are needed 
to create grammar checkers, parsers for use in translation and authoring systems, 
and tools for networked information discovery and classification. 
Speech technology can be broken down into signal processing, automatic speech 
recognition, language understanding, speaker recognition, speech generation and 
text-to-speech synthesis, as well as speech technology evaluation. Speech technology 
can be applied at the synthesis level, for example in creating text-to-speech systems 
for the blind, while speech analysis techniques are required for voice-controlled 
equipment and for automatic dictation systems. All these technologies are closely 
tied to their written-language processing counterparts. 
The ergonomie aspects of language engineering cover the design of effective 
interfaces for handling both spoken and written language. These include screen 
displays and help messaging in all the necessary languages as well as components 
supporting multilingual voice commands. 
Language engineering builds on these to develop applications involving the processing 
of written or spoken language. Potential applications could, for example, include 
systems offering rough translations of abstracts from scientific databases or for 
converting speech to text, for example reports dictated by medical specialists. 
16 
Europe's scientific basis for language technology has been consolidated by RTD 
programmes such as ESPRIT, Telematics, Eurotra(20), and Linguistic Research and 
Engineering^. Exploitation of this strong science and technology base is, however, 
lagging behind: 
Special efforts will be made both within the specific programmes concerned and 
through continued support for the exploitation and dissemination of results to ensure 
that industry is kept informed of achievements in the area of language technology. 
7. CONCLUDING REMARKS 
In conclusion, the proposed Multilingual Information Society programme will address 
a number of significant gaps which need to be filled in developing a coordinated 
strategy for a multilingual information society. In many cases it is not only the ideas, 
but better coordination, adequate speed, appropriate implementation that are required 
in Europe. The proposed Council decision to launch an action programme promoting 
the multilingual information society takes these issues into account. 
Language diversity has been and will remain a cornerstone for European communication 
and cooperation. It will become all the more important with the emergence of the global 
information society, where countries will try to capitalize on their strong position in 
certain areas of information and communication services by exporting products and 
services across the globe. 
As the global information society develops, Europe must be ready to play its part and 
reap the full benefits for its citizens, its businesses and its public administrations. 
European identity must be preserved, characterized as it is by fruitful cooperation 
between different peoples with different languages and different cultures. 
Europe's language diversity is considerable when compared with the United States and 
Japan, its main competitors, even if it is less marked than in many other parts of the 
world. Europe has the scientific and technological competence, the economic strength 
and the political will to maintain its language diversity in the information age as wished 
by the European citizens. Business is prepared to take its share in this enterprise, having 
experienced the need to cope with a multilingual and multicultural society. Small 
enterprises, confronted with large and diversified markets, also need adequate help. 
The multilingual information society will thus make it easier for citizens to 
communicate in the language of their choice, at work or at home. It will also ensure a 
strong position for Europe when transferring its own experience and maturity in dealing 
with a culturally and linguistically diverse Europe to an even more diverse 
Information Society worldwide. 
(20) 
(21) EUROTRA, A European machine translation system of advanced design. 
Initiated by Council Decision 82/752 of 4 November 1982 and last covered by 
Council Decision 90/664 of 26 November 1990. 
Council Decision of 7 June 1991, OJ No L 192, 16.7.1991. 
17 
ANNEX 1 : Summary of WILIS Actions 
1. TITLE 
Supporting the construction of an 
infrastructure for European 
language resources DESCRIPTION 
Call for proposal (shared cost projects) for the : 
- support starting up European language resources 
association with respect to validation and dissemination 
of language resources 
- phased development of a network connecting sector 
and language based terminology banks 
- selection and operation of an information centre for 
terminology 
- phased development of a network of compatible 
electronic corpora and lexicons JUSTIFICATION 
- better use of language resources which are being 
developed independently in different Member States 
- language resources need to be developed according 
to commonly agreed standards 
- networking these resources ensures their 
compatibility 
- Community action promotes development of 
multilingual resources 
2. TITLE 
Mobilising and expanding the 
language industries DESCRIPTION 
Calls for proposal (shared cost projects) for the : 
- demonstration of effective use of controlled language 
and language tools, in a limited number of industrial and 
business environments 
- demonstration of advanced tools and methods for 
localising multimedia software 
- development of electronic translation directory 
services 
- demonstration of tele-translation and tele-interpreting 
using pan-European networks JUSTIFICATION 
- SME's need increasingly to address different 
language markets 
- skills and experience to handle multilingualism are 
lacking 
- Community action will improve the chances of 
SME's in the Single Market 
- direct access to multilingual services will reduce 
time-to-market of SME's 
- language industries, mainly SME's, will benefit from 
European cooperation 
ANNEX 1 : Summary of WILIS Actions 
TITLE DESCRIPTION JUSTIFICATION 
Promoting the use of advanced 
language tools in the European 
public sector Calls for tender for the : 
- development of a multilingual information 
infrastructure for the public sector (tools, resources, 
standards, interfaces) 
- development of translation tools in bilateral 
cooperation with Member States and regions 
- elaboration of unified terminology specific for the 
European public sector - the need for multilingual communication between 
public administrations in Europe is rapidly increasing 
- deployment of language tools can vastly improve 
efficiency 
- experience of European institutions to handle 
{multilingualism should be shared with administrations 
in the Member States 
European public sector will be a showcase for the VI European language industries 
o TITLE 
Accompanying measures DESCRIPTION 
Calls for tender (mainly for studies and awareness 
actions) 
- organising concertation and coordinationbetween the 
principal operators 
- study to assess needs and progress towards 
multilingualism 
- support linguistic standards work 
- various promotional activities, particularly addressing 
the general public and business sectors 
- organise concertation with third countries. JUSTIFICATION 
- concerted actions at European level to improve 
effectiveness of action plan 
- standardisation essential for large scale deployment 
and re-use 
- awareness of language issues and potential solutions 
in Europe is low 
- international exchange can extend European action 
and strengthens links with selected third countries 
Proposal for a 
COUNCIL DECISION 
on the adoption of a multiannual programme to promote the linguistic diversity 
of the Community in the information society 
THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION, 
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, and in particular 
Article 130(3) thereof, 
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission, 
Having regard to the opinion of the European Parliament^, 
Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and Social Committee(2), 
Whereas the advent of the information society provides industry with new prospects for 
communication and trade on European and world markets which are marked by a rich 
linguistic and cultural diversity; 
Whereas industry must work out specific and adequate solutions to overcome the linguistic 
barriers if it is benefit fully from the advantages of the internal market and remain 
competitive on world markets; 
Whereas it is necessary to encourage the use of technologies, tools and methods which 
reduce the cost of transferring information between languages, while also assuring the quality 
of translations, particularly in the case of literary translation, which requires a specific creative 
effort; 
Whereas the European Council meeting in Corfu on 24 and 25 June 1994, stressed the 
importance of the cultural and linguistic aspects of the information society, and whereas the 
European Council meeting in Cannes on 26 and 27 June 1995, restated the importance to the 
Community of its linguistic diversity; 
Whereas the emergence of the information society could afford citizens greater access to 
information and offer an outstanding opportunity to exploit the cultural and linguistic wealth 
and diversity of the Community; 
Whereas language policies are a matter for the Member States, taking account of Community 
law; whereas, however, promoting the development of modern language processing tools and 
their use is a field of activity in which Community action is justified in order to achieve 
substantial economies of scale by stimulating suitable cooperation between those involved in 
the various language areas; whereas the measures to be taken at Community level must be 
commensurate with the objectives to be attained and concern only those fields which are 
likely to produce an added value for the Community; 
Whereas it is in the interests of the Community to support efforts to set up an infrastructure 
encouraging the creation and exploitation of the language resources required to improve 
language services and tools and give a boost to R&D work; 
(,) OJ No 
(2) OJ No 
20 
Whereas the Community should also mobilize the language industries and help create an 
environment which is conducive to their expansion; 
Whereas the information and communications technology industries should be encouraged to 
draw up standards which take account of linguistic diversity and incorporate them in their 
products and applications; 
Whereas it is useful for the Community institutions and the administrations concerned in the 
Member States to collaborate more closely in order to reduce the cost of developing and using 
the language tools required to carry out their tasks; 
Whereas the actions to be carried out in implementing this programme should be coordinated 
closely with initiatives implemented under other Community programmes with a view to 
setting up a multilingual information society; 
Whereas mutual benefits can be obtained by involving international organizations and legal 
entities from non-member countries in the implementation of all or part of the programme, 
while respecting the general policies of the Community towards these organizations, 
HAS ADOPTED THIS DECISION: 
Article 1 
A Community programme which aims to: 
(a) encourage the use of technologies, tools and methods which reduce the cost of 
transferring information between languages and the development of multilingual 
services, 
(b) stimulate the expansion of the languages industries, 
(c) promote the development of multilingual services, 
(d) promote the linguistic diversity of the Community in the global information society, 
is adopted for the period running from the date upon which this Decision takes effect until 
31 December 1998. 
Article 2 
The following actions shall be undertaken under the responsibility of the Commission and in 
accordance with the action lines set out in Annex I and the procedures for implementing the 
programme set out in Annex II: 
(a) support for attempts to construct an infrastructure for Community language resources 
and encouragement for those involved, 
(b) the mobilization and expansion of language industries by encouraging the use of 
modern language technologies and tools and their incorporation into computer 
applications, 
(c) promotion of the use of advanced language tools in the Community public sector. 
None of these actions should duplicate the work being carried out in these fields under 
Community or national programmes. 
21 
Article 3 
1. The budgetary authority shall determine the appropriations for each financial year, 
subject to the availability of resources within the context of the financial outlook. 
2. The Community's financial contribution to the shared-cost projects shall, as a general 
rule, be 50%. 
Article 4 
1. The Commission shall be responsible for the implementation of the programme. 
2. The Commission shall be assisted by a committee of an advisory nature composed of 
representatives of the Member States and chaired by the representative of the 
Commission. 
The representative of the Commission shall submit to the committee a draft of the 
measures to be taken. The committee shall deliver its opinion on the draft within a 
time limit which the chairman may lay down according to the urgency of the matter, 
if necessary by taking a vote. 
The opinion shall be recorded in the minutes; in addition, each Member State shall 
have the right to request that its position be recorded in the minutes. 
The Commission shall take the utmost account of the opinion delivered by the 
committee. It shall inform the committee of the manner in which its opinion has been 
taken into account. 
Article 5 
The procedure laid down in Article 4(2) shall apply to: 
(a) the work programme for carrying out the action lines set out in Annex I, 
(b) the content of the calls for proposals, 
(c) the selection of the actions proposed for Community financing and the estimated 
amount of this financing for each action, where this amount is equal to or exceeds 
ECU 0.5 million, 
(d) the procedures for evaluating the results of the programme, 
(e) adaptation of the procedures for carrying out the programme laid down in Annex II, 
(f) the decision to allow the participation of international organizations and legal entities 
from non-member countries. 
Article 6 
Upon completion of the programme, the Commission shall present to the 
European Parliament, the Council and the Economic and Social Committee an evaluation 
report on the results obtained through implementing the actions referred to in Article 2. 
22 
Article 7 
This Décision is addressed to the Member States. 
Done at Brussels, For the Council 
The President 
23 
Annex 1 
ACTION LINES 
1. Action Line 1: Supporting the construction of an infrastructure for European 
language resources 
Language resources such as dictionaries, terminological databanks, grammar books, collections 
of texts and voice recordings are an essential raw material for linguistic research, the 
development of language-processing tools integrated into data processing systems and for 
improving translation services. Considerable amounts of money have already been invested 
by the Member States, the Commission and some private companies on producing language 
resources of varying size and complexity. The full utilization of these resources is currently 
being hampered by the fact that they are mainly monolingual and their basic specifications 
sometimes differ, thus limiting their wider use. In addition, they are often difficult to locate. 
The aim of this action line is to support efforts to construct a European infrastructure for 
multilingual language resources. 
1.1 The Commission will lend its support for the starting up of the activities of the 
European language resources association (ELRA), whose aims are to: 
- compile an inventory of the language resources available in the Community, 
- introduce mechanisms to ensure that they are disseminated throughout the Community, 
- promote the application of common standards to ensure their compatibility and enable 
quality certification. 
1.2 The work in the field of terminology covers a vast range of activities with important 
implications for trade, science, the cultural sector and technology and the implementation 
of Community decisions, directives and regulations. This work is being undertaken by 
a very wide range of public and private operators who often lack the means to 
coordinate their actions with those of their counterparts in other Member States. 
The Commission will encourage the launch of concerted actions between interested 
bodies in the different Member States in areas which have priority in attaining the 
objectives of Community policies. To this end, it will, where necessary, make financial 
contributions to expenditure involved in the introduction of concerted European action 
among the bodies concerned, particularly addressing standards, dissemination of 
information and networking. 
1.3 The availability of lexicographical databanks and voice recordings which are suited to 
the development of data processing applications and cover all the Community languages 
is essential in order for a European language industry to emerge. Most of the resources 
currently available in Europe are monolingual and mutually incompatible, which makes 
them impossible to use for the production of multilingual tools. In this field too, the 
Commission will encourage the launch of concerted actions between public and private 
sector operators in the different Member States with the aim of developing compatible 
vocal and lexicographical resources which conform to generally-accepted standards. 
1.4 The Commission will ensure that the concerted actions receiving its support have 
appropriate links with international work in this field. 
24 
2. Action Line 2: Mobilizing and expanding the language industries 
It is the private sector's role to produce and market modern tools facilitating the development 
of multilingual data processing applications and information transfer between languages. 
Europe has a solid scientific and technological base in this field which has been strengthened 
by Community research and development programmes, in particular the programmes relating 
to information and communications technologies and telematic systems of general interest. 
However, the European market lags behind when it comes to exploiting the advances made 
by research in the area of language engineering. A concentrated effort needs to be made to 
speed up the process of getting new language processing technology onto the market, 
particularly as part of the actions for disseminating and exploiting the results of research 
carried out under the framework programme and the specific programmes. All the action lines 
proposed in the present programme seek to create an environment which is conducive to the 
expansion of the language industries such as language engineering and translation industries. 
The aim of this action line is to spur the language industries into action by stimulating 
technology transfer and demand through a limited number of shared-cost demonstration 
projects which could act as a catalyst in certain key sectors. 
2.1 A number of industries has experimented with controlled language to facilitate drafting 
of technical documents and user support information. This approach improves general 
document management and allows effective use of machine-translation. A limited 
number of shared cost projects will demonstrate the cost-effectiveness of integrating 
controlled language, authoring and translation tools, in operational document 
management systems for different industrial and business environments. 
2.2 Localization of multimedia software, including translation of the spoken and written 
word, is becoming increasingly in demand in the Information Society, to stimulate 
professionalism andto improve competitiveness of the localization and the multimedia 
industries, a call will be issued to launch a small number of shared cost projects, 
demonstrating the integration of localization methodology and tools, training of 
localization staff and developing best practice guidelines of particular importance for 
SME's. 
2.3 The Commission will promote the use of networks by the translation and interpretation 
industries. These give access to advanced tools, including electronic dictionaries, 
improve logistics, allow integration with other functions, and generally improve the 
functioning of the translation market. A call for proposals will ask for the definition and 
implementation of European translation directory services, the definition of an open 
translation environment in Europe, and for pan-European tele-translation and tele-
interpretation demonstrators with the involvement of the translation industry and 
profession. 
3. Action Line 3: Promoting the use of advanced language tools in the European 
public sector 
On account of their linguistic obligations, the European institutions, and the Commission in 
particular, have had to spend a substantial amount on acquiring and perfecting advanced tools 
which have become indispensable for the efficient processing of an increasing volume of 
translations and multilingual documents. In addition, through their daily translation activities 
they are also helping to compile important multilingual language resources in the various 
fields of Community activity. With the introduction of the Single Market and the removal of 
internal frontiers, there will be an increase in the transfer of information between 
administrations in the different Member States. These will be faced with an increasing number 
of situations where they will need advanced language tools in order to make communication 
25 
with their counterparts in other Member States easier and cheaper. Transferring the experience 
acquired by the European institutions in the processing of multilingualism to the 
administrations in the Member States and sharing the language resources which each produces 
can help achieve economies of scale and reduce the cost of multilingual communication. 
The aim of this action line is to encourage cooperation between administrations in the 
Member States and the European institutions in order to reduce the cost of multilingual 
communication in the European public sector in particular by using advanced language tools. 
In this way, the European institutions can act as powerful catalysts for the development of 
the European language industry in the form of a public demand based on common standards 
or technical specifications. 
3.1 The long-term goal is the provision of an efficient multilingual processing service which 
satisfies the requirements of the Institutions and the administrative services concerned 
in the Member States. This, will favour the establishment of an infrastructure enabling 
each party to use the different linguistic tools available in the Community institutions 
and the different administrations without any loss of their current functions, whilst 
encouraging convergence in future developments. Calls for tender will be issued for the 
development of tools and systems which help reduce translation time by making it easier 
to locate and re-use texts or sections of documents which have already been translated, 
as well as on access to terminological databanks. Particular attention will also be 
devoted to tools and applications which make the task of interpreting easier. 
3.2 Work will continue on shared-cost cooperation projects conducted with certain 
Member States in order to improve terminological tools and existing compter-assisted 
translation systems, and will be extended to include other interested Member States. 
3.3 A special effort will be made to bring the language tools for the new official Community 
languages up to the level of the others. 
4. Accompanying measures 
Achieving the multilingual information society calls for the devising of converging strategies 
on the part of the public authorities, associations and institutions working to develop language 
resources and tools, the experimental users and the market operators producing and 
disseminating the information services or providing language processing tools, services and 
systems. To help in this, the Commission will carry out the following accompanying 
measures: 
organizing concertation and coordination between the principal operators involved in 
developing a multilingual information society, 
assessing progress made towards multilingual information society, and identifying 
remaining barriers; 
promoting technical standards which meet the linguistic needs of users; 
launching promotional activities and user awareness campaigns and supporting the 
exchange of best practice; 
exploring the possibilities for fruitful collaboration with third countries and multilingual 
international organizations. 
26 
Annex II 
PROCEDURES FOR IMPLEMENTING THE PROGRAMME 
1. The Commission shall implement the programme in accordance with the technical 
specifications set out in Annex I. 
2. Where appropriate, the action lines in the programme shall be carried out by means of 
shared-cost projects, except in the case of developments exclusively for the institutions 
of the EU, in which case the rate may be up to 100%. The Community's financial 
contribution will not normally be more than 50% of the cost of the projects, this 
proportion decreasing the closer the project is to being marketed. Universities and other 
institutes which do not have cost accounting systems shall be reimbursed at 100% of 
their additional costs. 
3. The selection of shared-cost projects is, in principle, based on the normal procedure for 
calls for proposals published in the Official Journal of the European Communities. The 
objectives shall be set out in work plans compiled in close cooperation with the market 
operators and the committee referred to in Article 4 of the Decision. 
4. In exceptional cases, having received the opinion of the committee referred to in 
Article 4, the Commission may consider proposals for projects which have not been 
requested but which might involve particularly promising and important developments 
for achieving the objectives of the programme and which could not be submitted under 
the normal procedure for calls for proposals. 
5. Support for attempts to construct an infrastructure for European linguistic resources 
could take the form of concerted actions to coordinate the development of multilingual 
linguistic resources, particularly through "concertation networks". The Community's 
financial contribution could cover up to 100% of the coordinating costs. 
6. Projects financed entirely by the Commission under study and service contracts shall be 
implemented through a call for tenders in accordance with the Commission's financial 
regulations. Transparency will be ensured by the publication and regular dissemination 
of the work programme to professional associations and other interested bodies. 
7. To implement the programme, the Commission shall also carry out activities drawn up 
in accordance with the general objectives of the programme and the specific aims of 
each action line. Such activities shall include workshops, seminars, conferences, studies, 
publications, awareness campaigns, training courses, participation in cooperative projects 
with the administrations in the Member States, the European institutions and 
international organizations, helping national language observatories and specific support 
for the development of language tools and resources for those Community languages 
most in need of such assistance. 
27 
FINANCIAL STATEMENT 
1. TITLE OF OPERATION 
Promotion of the multilingual information society (MLIS): multiannual action 
programme to preserve and exploit linguistic diversity in Europe. 
2. BUDGET HEADING INVOLVED 
B5-403 
3. LEGAL BASIS 
Treaty on European Union, Article 130 (3). 
4. DESCRIPTION OF OPERATION 
4.1 GENERAL OBJECTIVE 
The programme is based on the experience acquired by the Commission of the European 
Communities in managing research programmes in the field of language engineering and 
the development, for its own requirements, of language tools which facilitate translation 
and reduce its cost. 
This new programme has four principal objectives: 
- to stimulate the use of technologies, tools and methods which reduce the cost of 
transferring information between languages and the development of multilingual 
services; 
- to encourage the strengthening of the language industries; 
- to encourage the development of multilingual services; 
- to promote the linguistic diversity of the European Union in the global information 
society. 
The technological revolutions which are profoundly modifying the form and modes of 
human communication have an impact on the evolution of languages and their use. The 
appearance on the scene of a global information society is a challenge to linguistic 
cohesion and diversity in Europe. Economic pressures (the cost of multilingualism) will 
tend to encourage the use of dominant languages through the networks. Those citizens 
who are not in a position to express themselves easily in those languages risk missing 
out on the benefits of the information society. 
However, the progress achieved in language engineering and language processing 
technologies means that there are now tools available which reduce the cost of 
translation and multilingualism and make it easier to learn languages. 
The principal lines of action of the new programme are as follows: 
- to support efforts to set up the infrastructure of European language resources and to 
encourage the operators involved; 
- to mobilize and reinforce the language industries by promoting the use of modern 
language technologies and tools and their incorporation in computer applications; 
- to promote the use of advanced language tools, in particular in the European public 
sector. 
28 
4.2 PERIOD COVERED AND ARRANGEMENTS FOR RENEWAL 
Three years, covering the period from 1 January 1996 to 31 December 1998. 
5. CLASSIFICATION OF EXPENDITURE OR REVENUE 
5.1 NCE 
5.2 DA 
5.3 Type of revenue 
Any revenue will be reemployed in accordance with Article 27 of the 
Financial Regulation of 21 December 1977, as most recently amended by Regulation 
610/90 of 13 March 1990. 
6. TYPE OF EXPENDITURE/REVENUE INVOLVED 
6.1 Provision of services 
Projects financed in whole by the Commission under study and services contracts will 
be implemented through calls for tender in accordance with the financial regulations of 
the Commission. These services will generally concern studies, the organization of 
coordination meetings, workshops and demonstrations of language tools for the 
European institutions. They will derive, in particular, from the implementation of action 
lines 2 and 3 and the accompanying measures. Transparency will be ensured by 
publishing the work programme and communicating it to commercial associations and 
other interested bodies. 
6.2 Subsidy for joint funding with other sources in the public and private sectors 
Shared-cost projects and joint projects will normally be selected following the usual 
procedures of calls for proposals published in the Official Journal of the European 
Communities. This type of funding applies, in particular, to the activities provided for 
in the three action lines for joint development projects. The content of the calls for 
proposals will be drawn up in close consultation with market operators and the 
programme committee. The principal criterion for supporting projects through the calls 
for proposals will be their potential contribution to attaining the objectives of the 
programme. The Community's financial contribution to shared-cost projects will not 
normally exceed 50%. The Community's financial involvement may of course be as 
high as 100% in the case of projects involving exclusively the institutions of the 
European Union. Specific supplementary bonuses may also be granted to encourage the 
development of a European language resources infrastructure, the participation of SMEs 
and initiatives concerning those Community languages for which the advanced language 
tools are least developed. The Community's financial contribution to the projects 
involved may cover up to 100% of the coordination costs. 
29 
7. FINANCIAL IMPACT 
7.1 Method of calculating total cost of operation (relationship between individual costs 
and the total cost) 
The volume of appropriations required to finance the Community contribution to 
implementing the MLIS programme takes account of the financial parameters derived 
from previous experience and activities and the nature of the actions proposed with a 
view to achieving the specific objectives set out in point 9.1. 
7.2 Itemized breakdown of costs 
Commitment by line of action (current costs in million ecus): 
Supporting the construction of an 
infrastructure for European 
language resources 
Mobilizing and expanding the 
language industries 
Promoting the use of advanced 
language tools in the European 
public sector 
Accompanying measures 
TOTAL 1996 
0.5 
1.0 
2.0 
0.5 
4.0 1997 
0.5 
1.0 
2.5 
1.0 
5.0 1998 
1.0 
1.5 
2.5 
1.0 
6.0 Total 
2.0 
3.5 
7.0 
2.5 
15 
8. FRAUD PREVENTION MEASURES (AND RESULTS OF MEASURES TAKEN) 
Overall monitoring will be exercised by a committee composed of delegates of the 
Member States. Specific monitoring criteria and procedures will be laid down at the start 
of the programme and applied periodically during the implementation phase of the 
programme. The Commission officials, if necessary assisted by independent experts, will 
verify the proper implementation of the projects and studies before payment, taking into 
account the contractual obligations and principles of good management. Administrative 
checks will be carried out by the Commission. Verification will be by the Court of 
Auditors under the terms of the Treaty. At the end of the programme an evaluation report 
will be drawn up by independent experts on the results obtained in implementing the 
lines of action. 
9. ELEMENTS OF COST-EFFECTIVENESS ANALYSIS 
9.1 Specific and quantifiable objectives; target population 
Specific objectives 
Supporting the construction of an infrastructure for European language resources 
Language resources such as dictionaries, terminological databanks, grammar books, 
collections and the like are an essential raw material for linguistic research, for the 
development of operational language processing tools and the improvement of computer-
assisted translation systems. Considerable sums have already been invested by the 
Member States, the Commission and certain private companies in an effort to produce 
language resources of varying scale and complexity. Exploitation of these resources is 
currently hampered by the fact that they are mainly monolingual, their basic 
specifications are sometimes disparate - which limits their use - and they are often 
difficult to locate. The objective of this line of action is to support the efforts being 
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undertaken by producers and users, with a view to facilitating their identification, 
structuring, distribution and utilization at Community level. 
Mobilizing and expanding the language industries 
This line of action will essentially involve promoting the modern language processing 
tools in those sectors of activity to which they are particularly well-suited and in which 
they are likely to considerably reduce translation costs: product labelling, controlled-
language drafting and computer-assisted translation of documentation and user notices, 
adapting software to different language markets, etc. It will also aim to promote the use 
of language tools and means of communication to strengthen the efficiency and 
competitiveness of the European translation industry and interpreting services. 
Promoting the use of advanced language tools in the European public sector 
This line of action aims to' exploit the Commission's prior investment, for its own 
requirements, in the field of machine translation and multilingual tools, and to act as a 
catalyst for the development of the market through public demand. The objective is to 
allow the other European institutions and the civil services of the interested Member 
States to use these tools and to set up cooperation projects to share the development 
costs needed to cover the Community's new working languages. 
Accompanying measures 
In addition to the measures to strengthen coordination of the suitable initiatives in the 
language field undertaken under various Community programmes, and to speed up their 
impact, the accompanying measures will involve the organization of strategic 
coordination meetings with the principal market operators, launching studies and strategic 
surveys so as to monitor the development of the market and evaluate the impact of the 
programme, stimulating standardization work, launching promotion measures and 
measure to increase user awareness, and encouraging cooperation and the exchange of 
best practice in public and private bodies which are taking steps to adapt to a 
multilingual society and market. These measures will also involve examining 
opportunities for advantageous cooperation with third countries and multilingual 
international organizations. 
Target population 
The target groups comprise: 
- the national language departments or institutions with strategic and executive 
responsibilities in the Member States and regions, 
- language "professionals": translators, terminologists, publishers of grammar books and 
dictionaries, teachers of languages and specialized bodies and institutes in the Member 
States, 
- creators of language resources and the specialized bodies which process them to give 
them a structure, 
- computer service companies and software publishers specialized in the production of 
language processing tools, 
- major groups of users of these tools (export-oriented industries, providers of 
information services and international communications, software publishers, 
administrations and institutions which need to communicate in several 
languages, etc.). 
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9.2 Grounds for the operation 
Subsidiarity 
Language policies are the responsibility of the Member States. Nevertheless, promoting 
the development of modern language processing tools and their use is a field of activity 
where Community action is justified in order to achieve substantial economies of scale 
through promoting suitable cooperation between the operators involved in the various 
language zones. The activities under the programme will be commensurate with the 
objectives to be achieved and will involve only those fields likely to achieve an added 
value at European level. 
Choice of ways and means 
The costs will be reduced as much as possible through competition by means of calls for 
tenders and proposals. The Commission contribution to shared-cost projects will 
coordination meetings should avoid any duplication of effort and promote synergy. The 
choice of ways and means takes account of the guidelines set out in the 
Bangemann Report and in the Commission action plan COM(94) 347, as well as of the 
consultations held with industry, users and the representatives of the Member States in 
preparing the programme. 
Spin-off and multiplier effects expected 
Promoting the development of the language industries and the use of modern language 
tools has spin-off benefits of great interest to the Community: 
- promotion of an industry and services which create jobs; 
- reduction in the cost of translating and transferring information between languages 
(the number of pages translated in the Community in 1988 was estimated at 
100 million); 
- new outlets offered by linguistic adaptation of products and services to local markets; 
- strengthening of the cohesion of the Community in its linguistic diversity; 
- preservation of the cultural and linguistic diversity of the Community in the global 
information society. 
The Community's means of action - shared-cost projects and support for joint projects 
have a multiplier effect through the supplementary funding contributed by the partners 
taking part in these projects. Moreover, they achieve a further multiplier effect by 
encouraging investment by the market operators. 
Factors of uncertainty 
The main factors of uncertainty which might affect the specific results of the programme 
concern the readiness of the private sector to invest in the development of modern 
language processing tools before the market for such products has taken off. 
9.3 Monitoring and evaluation of the operation 
Some of the projects will be devoted to developing indicators for monitoring the 
multilingualism market in Europe, in terms of both developing the supply of products 
and the industry and demand. In the very first year of the programme, a methodological 
framework will be laid down for the systematic collection of data in the various fields. 
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An analysis of these annually-updated indicators will allow an assessment of the 
effectiveness of the measures taken in the course of the programme. Before the end 
of the programme an evaluation report will be drawn up on the results achieved in 
implementing the lines of action. 
10. ADMINISTRATIVE EXPENDITURE (PART A OF SECTION 3 OF THE 
GENERAL BUDGET) 
The expenditure is calculated per year. 
10.1 Additional staff in the Commission 
Implementation of the proposed action will require the additional allocation of 2 
officials (1 A-grade post and 1 C-grade post, cost = ECU 160 000). Effective 
mobilization of the necessary administrative resources will depend on the 
Commission's annual decision on the allocation of resources, taking account in 
particular of the additional staff and sums approved by the budgetary authority. 
Additional requests can in no way prejudice the decision which the Commission will 
have to take on the allocation of resources. 
10.2 Amount of staff and administrative expenditure involved 
The annual amounts of administrative expenditure are as follows: 
10.2.1 National experts seconded 
A-1520 
Total expenditure: ECU 70 000 
Two national officials will have to be seconded to coordinate the MLIS projects 
between the EU and the national/regional levels. 
10.2.2 Meetings of experts 
A-250 
Total expenditure: ECU 120 000 
To prepare the work programme, the Commission will consult outside experts and 
representatives of users, industry administrations and research. 
9 meetings aie planned, with 1 participant per Member State (cost = 880 x 15 x 9 
- 118 800, rounded up to ECU 120 000). 
10.2.3 Meetings of the Committee 
A-2510 
Total expenditure: ECU 40 000 
The MLIS programme committee mentioned in the Council Decision will hold an 
average of 3 meetings per year, with 1 participant per Member State (cost: 880 x 15 
3-39 600, rounded up to ECU 40 000). 
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10.2.4 Official travel 
' A-130 
Total expenditure: ECU 50 000 
Total official travel costs for Commission staff and the seconded national experts are 
estimated at ECU 50 000 and will be taken from the overall amount allocated to 
DG XIII. 
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RELATIONSHIPS OF MLIS WITH OTHER EU PROGRAMMES 
1 PROGRAMME CHARACTERISTICS 
MLIS MLIS is a programme promoting linguistic diversity in the emerging Information Society. It comprises horizontal actions such as language infrastructure development and 
related standardisation, stimulates the use of language technologies by the language industries so as to improve thier cost-effectiveness and stimulates the market for 
multilingual products and services. The vertical market addressed is the public sector for which MLIS will develop multilingual solutions and best practice methodologies. 
The success of MLIS will depend to a large extent on how other initiatives incorporate multilingualism in their objectives and concrete actions. 
1 MLIS RELATIONSHIPS ~ 
INFO 2000 INFO 2000 is a Community programme to encourage Europe's content providers to develop new multimedia products and services and to stimulate user demand for these 
products and services. INFO 2000 aims at creating favourable conditions for the development of the European multimedia content industry, focus on the transition from 
print to electronic publishing and on the interactive multimedia services that are currently emerging. MLIS contributes to INFO 2000 objectives by addressing the 
multilingual aspects of multimedia content, for example, by encouraging the language industries to use language technologies for cost-effective services and by ensuring that 
suitable information and communication infrastructures and human interfaces are provided for the various language versions. 
IT and ACTS IT and ACTS cover infrastructure-oriented research and technological development programmes in the field of information technologies (addressing software technologies, 
technologies for IT components and subsystems and interface technologies) and advanced communication technologies (addressing the technological base for interactive 
digital multimedia services, photonics, high-speed networking, mobility and personal communications, intelligent networks and service engineering, and quality, security 
and safety of communications services and systems). MLIS will build on the results of the IT and telecommunications programmes, and will promote the application of 
language specific technologies and tools. Specifically, MLIS will promote the systematic localisation (translation) of software in view of the considerable economic benefits 
this can represent. 
TELEMATICS The Telematics Applications programme stimulates applied telematics research and demonstrators in a number of public sector domains such as health care, education, 
transport and libraries. MLIS will contribute to telematics applications, particularly if they are meant for multinational or multiregional use, by ensuring that 
multilingualism is taken into account from early design to the pilot stage in a cost-effective way. MLIS will ensure availability of the necessary language infrastructure. The 
Language Engineering sector of the Telematics Applications programme supports language tool development and demonstration. MLIS will ensure that these results are 
used in operational environments 
MEDIA II & MEDIA II addresses the specific needs of the audiovisual segment (television, video, radio, audio and cinema) of the content-industry, while RAPHAEL is a vertical 
RAPHAEL programme addressing the cultural heritage sector. The content-industry at large is composed of those enterprises involved in content creation, development, packaging and 
distribution. MEDIA II will make a very important contribution to linguistic pluralism through its language versioning actions. These actions will build on work under 
MLIS Action Line 2.2 relating to the cost-effective use of versioning methodologies. MLIS will encourage the translation industry to meet the challenges in the audiovisual 
sector and will develop the language infrastructure. 
SOCRATES AND The SOCRATES and LEONARDO programmes establish general Community frameworks for education and training policy actions, for educational systems and for a wide 
LEONARDO of range of economic sectors, while MLIS concentrates on the specific needs of the language industry. Very important in this context are the post-LINGUA actions to 
promote foreign language learning. These contribute to the overall MLIS objective to promote linguistic pluralism and international communication. MLIS and 
SOCRATES in particular are thus fully complementary striving for the same strategic goal. . 
SMEs AND The purpose of the Integrated Programme in favour of SMEs and the Craft sector is, in the context of the White Paper, to initiate in a concerted manner measures 
CRAFT SECTOR facilitating reciprocal consultation and, where necessary, coordination between Member States with a view to improving the business environment by simplifying 
procedures, promoting support measures for enterprises and identifying ways in which the Community can contribute to the development of enterprises. MLIS addresses the 
language industry which, apart from a limited number of international players, consists mainly of SMEs. The MLIS programme aims at stimulating this sector and its users, 
many of whom are SMEs. Results from MLIS will open up new business opportunities for SMEs in the single market. In short, the Integrated Programme and MLIS are 
fully complementary in improving the competitiveness of SMEs in Europe. 
IDA IDA aims at improving communication between the various Member State administrations and between them and the Community institutions. The actions under IDA are 
complicated by the different languages used by administrations for communications, for their laws and regulations; and by the lack of European terminology standards in 
this sector. MLIS will contribute to IDA in a significant way, through its actions on terminology infrastructure and on multilingual services in the public sector where the 
Commission's considerable experience in dealing with multilingualism will be taken into account. 
ISSN 0254-1475 
COM(95) 486 final 
DOCUMENTS 
EN 16 
Catalogue number : CB-CO-95-559-EN-C 
ISBN 92-77-95286-5 
Office for Official Publications of the European Communities 
L-2985 Luxembourg 
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