Latin Union

The Latin Union – Spanish: Unión Latina; French: Union Latine; Italian: Unione Latina; Portuguese: União Latina; Romanian: Uniunea Latină – is an intergovernmental organization that gathers together the nations of the world that use a Romance language. Its aim is to promote and disseminate the common heritage and different identities of the Latin world. It was created in 1954 with the signing of a constituent agreement in Madrid, and it has existed as a functional institution since 1983.

Since that date, its member states have risen from 12 to 35, and its membership now covers all parts of the world. Accession is open to any state that satisfies at least one of the following criteria:

• Linguistic criteria
  • Official language derived from Latin
  • Latin-derived language used in education
  • Latin-derived language commonly used in the mass media or in daily life

• Linguistic/cultural criteria
  • Existence of significant literature in a Latin-derived language
  • Press and publication in Latin-derived language
  • Television with a strong proportion of the programming in a Latin-derived language
  • Radio widely broadcast in a Latin language

• Cultural criteria
  • Direct or indirect inheritance of the legacy of Ancient Rome, to which the state remains faithful and which it perpetuates mainly through the education of Latin
  • Cultural education of Latin-derived foreign languages
  • Interchanges with other Latin countries
  • Societal organization, particularly in the legal plane, based on respect for fundamental liberties, the general principles of human rights and democracy, tolerance and freedom of religion).

Member states

The Latin Union currently has members from four continents:

Angola  |  Argentina  |  Bolivia  |  Brazil  |  Cape Verde  |  Chile  |  Colombia  |  Côte d'Ivoire  |  Costa Rica  |  Cuba  |  Dominican Republic  |  Ecuador  |  Equatorial Guinea  |  France  |  Guatemala  |  Guinea-Bissau  |  Haiti  |  Holy See (special status)  |  Honduras  |  Italy  |  Mexico  |  Moldova  |  Monaco  |  Mozambique  |  Nicaragua  |  Panama  |  Paraguay  |  Peru  |  Portugal  |  Romania  |  San Marino  |  São Tomé and Príncipe  |  Senegal  |  Spain  |  Uruguay  |  Venezuela

The official languages of the Latin Union are Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese and Romanian. The first four are used as working languages. All the texts of general diffusion are translated into these four languages, with some also going into Romanian.

The Philippines was expelled from the Latin Union in 2003. Its official languages are English and Tagalog, neither of which is derived from Latin (English is derived from the Germanic family while Tagalog is derived from the Austronesian family). In 2004, Equatorial Guinea, whose official languages are Spanish and French, joined the Latin Union as a new member. Apparently East Timor (in which Portuguese is an official language along with Tetum) has not applied for membership.

See also

• Community of Portuguese Language Countries
• La Francophonie
• Romance languages
• Latin America

External link

• Official site (http://www.unilat.org/)