The use of a model for treatment of English modals in a machine translation system being developed in Europe is discussed. The Eurotra system, sponsored by the Commission of the European Communities, is designed to translate into the nine official languages of the European Economic Community. The report first examines modality, the different ways of expressing modality, and why it is necessary to have a semantic representation of modal expressions for each language. The Palmer/Davidsen-Nielsen grid for representation of English modal meanings is then outlined. The Eurotra organization and translation system are also described. Eurotra's stratified framework of analysis and synthesis at four levels (morphological, configurational, relational, and interface) and the process of transfer from the source to the target language are explained, and its model for classifying modality type is presented, giving attention to the method used for identifying modality types in a text. Danish and English examples are referred to, and structural and processing problems are noted. (MSE)