BRUSSELS, Feb. 23 (Xinhua) -- European Union (EU) companies have been urged to invest more in languages which is seen to boost competitiveness.

Each year, thousands of European companies lose business and miss out on contracts as a result of their lack of language skills, according to a study published on Friday.

The study was carried out for the European Commission during 2006 by the UK National Center for Languages. The data in the study is based on a sample of 2,000 small- and medium-sized companies across Europe, correlated with information from 30 multinational companies and a group of experts from the countries involved.

The findings suggest that there is enormous potential for small businesses in Europe to increase their total exports if they invest more in languages and develop coherent language strategies, said the commission, the executive body of the EU.

Recent research shows that companies that enhance their language skills can exploit better the business opportunities in the EU's internal market, which, with nearly half a billion people, is the world's largest.

"Far from being an unwelcome cost to doing business, investing in language skills can dramatically improve a company's business opportunities. I plan to place multilingualism at the heart of the Lisbon strategy for more growth and jobs," said Leonard Orban, EU commissioner for multilingualism.

While the report confirms the importance of English as the world business language, other languages are used extensively as intermediary languages. In particular, the analysis reveals that there is a need for a range of other languages if business relationships are to be built successfully. Those cited as being the most important include the main European languages, such as German, French and Spanish, but increasingly also other world languages like Mandarin Chinese, Arabic and Russian.

The portfolio of multilingualism was created to accommodate the accession of Bulgaria and Romania on Jan. 1, 2007. Multilingualism, together with consumer protection, enabled each member state to have one commissioner.